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2022 Caucasian Queen Marked, Mated, and in California Mini Cages with candy plugs. Pick Up at Store Only in Colorado Springs. We do NOT ship queens.
These queens will be ready for pickup Thursday, 06/16/2022.
PLEASE MAKE SURE WE HAVE A GOOD EMAIL AND PHONE NUMBER FOR YOU.
ALL QUEENS MUST BE PICKED UP WITHIN ONE BUSINESS DAY AFTER YOUR ORDER IS PLACED.
All orders are FINAL. There will be a $30 re-stocking fee on unwanted queens that have not left the store. There are NO REFUNDS on queens that have left the store. NO EXCEPTIONS.
We cannot bank queens for you. We cannot guarantee the quality of any queens that we hold for you. You need to pick up your queen no later than the next business day after your purchase.
NOTICE: You cannot install a queen by herself into an empty hive or she will die. You must have some worker bees in order for her to survive. These cages have a CANDY PLUG...your queen will be released by the workers within 3 to 5 days after hanging her for acceptance.
The Caucasian honey bee is native to the country of Georgia in the Caucasus mountain region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea; mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia . They build up more slowly in the spring, which is an excellent trait for long Colorado winters. An Old World type, Caucasians are revered for their honey production and their extreme gentleness. Of all the honeybee varieties, Caucasians have the longest tongues which allows them to forage flowers that others cannot. They also fly earlier in the spring, and later in the fall when the Colorado weather is cooler. Additionally, they produce more propolis (a substance they make with tree resin that is antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial that keeps the hive sanitary and sealed off from cold drafts) than other strains resulting in a cleaner, more hygienic hive. Caucasians are known for being able to withstand harsh winters with smaller clusters and are frugal with their winter honey stores. They also tend to be less swarm prone than other varieties and have low mite counts.
Queens produced from this breeder are open-mated daughters from instrumentally inseminated breeder queens from one of the top queen breeders in the US.
Caucasian traits:
NOTICE: You cannot install a queen by herself into an empty hive or she will die. You must have some worker bees in order for her to survive.
Preparing Your Hive to Accept Your Queen: In order for a hive to accept a new queen, you must make sure that your hive is queen-less. Queenless means that there isn't a virgin queen in there (which happens after a hive swarms). A hive "in transition" after it has swarmed will need about three weeks for a virgin queen to become mated and begin to lay eggs. Many times, a hive will recognize a queen cell as their queen or a laying worker as their queen and reject a new queen that you introduce. A hive may also be queen-less if the queen, for some reason has become old or injured and has died. Before introducing a new queen, make sure you have removed any virgin queens, laying worker, or queen cells and give them 24 to 48 hours to realize they are queen-less. Hives with hot or Africanized genetics are typically harder to re-queen...try smoking the hive a bit to get rid of old pheromone and use a re-queening frame.