Italian Cross Mated Queens- 2023 Stage2
Our Italian Carniolan Cross queen bee is bred for gentle temperament, honey production, and cold climate wintering.
Italian Honey Bee Behavior
The Italian bee is the most popular and widely used for commercial and backyard beekeeping. This subspecies of Apis Mellifera is popular due to its adaptability and general workability.The book Breeding the HoneyBee- it states
“From the commercial and breeding point of view the value of the Liguistica lies in a happy synthesis of a great number of good characteristics. Among these we must mention industry, gentleness, fertility, reluctance to swarm, zeal for building comb, white honey-capping, a willingness to enter supers, cleanliness, resistance to disease, and the tendency to collect flower honey rather than honey dew.”
The Italian honey bee is also very selective in its nectar sources when able and are good at ripening nectar into honey over some of the other sub species.
The behavior of Carniolan Honey Bees
Carniolan bees are a favored bee among beekeepers in commercial apiaries as well as backyard beehives for several reasons, as they are quick to expand colony numbers in the Spring. But for this reason, they can also have swarming tendencies. They are great at defending their beehive from pests and robbers but are also known for their extremely gentle behavior towards beekeepers. This subspecies of honey bees is also resistant to some diseases and parasites that can debilitate some hives of other subspecies.The appearance of a Carniolan bee is similar in size to that of an Italian bee but has a distinguished dusky brown-grey color with stripes of a lighter brown color. Because of this the Carniolan can also be known as the “grey bee”. Like the Caucasian bee, the Carniolan has a very long tongue (proboscis) which allows them to have excellent foraging habits.
With this queen you’re going to get a bee that broods up fast in the spring, is gentle to work with, and retains its hardiness while also slowing brood production later on as it heads into the winter.
Shipping Gurantee
We do everything in our power to ensure when the queens leave us, and they stand the best chance to make it to your possession alive and with vigor. However, as soon as we hand them off to the shipper, we cannot guarantee how they are treated, weather, unforeseen acts or incidences, or the speed at which they get to you beyond the 2-day guarantee we purchase. We cannot guarantee the queens if shipped, and we will do what we reasonably can in a case-by-case situation. These case-by-case situations are at our full descretion and are no guarantee to help in a case that results in dead queens or similar. Please reach out with your concerns or incidences, and we will see if we can help. By purchasing the product, you acknowledge you agree to these terms and our other terms located throughout our site and located in our footers.
Only the Queen
If you are looking to start a new colony, you must purchase a package or nuc that also contains a queen, this is ONLY a queen and cannot start a colony without other bees. By purchasing you fully understand you are only receiving the queen.