2024 Bred Italian Queens

Italian Queens will be available June-November 2024- Pre-order enabled. Reach out for questions on timing of your order.

Italian Bee Strengths

• shows strong disposition to breeding and very prolific
• cleanliness/excellent housekeeper (which some scientists think might be a factor in disease resistance)
• uses little propolis
• excellent foragers
• superb comb builder
• covers the honey with brilliant white cappings
• shows lower swarming tendency than other bee races
• for areas with continuous nectar flow and favorable weather throughout the summer
• industry
• gentleness
• a willingness to enter supers
• tendency to collect flower honey rather than honey dew (of value only in countries where the colour of the honey determines the price)

Weaknesses

• lacks vitality
• inclined to excessive brood rearing
• susceptibility to disease
• high consumption of stores
• more prone to drifting and robbing than the other principal races of Europe.
• the strong brood rearing disposition often results in large food consumption in late winter or early spring that causes spring dwindling and hence slow or tardy spring development
• brood rearing starts late and lasts long into late summer or autumn, irrespective of nectar flow
• tends to forage over shorter distances
• for cool maritime regions
• for areas with strong spring flow
• for areas with periods of dearth of nectar in the summer