Discover five quality suppliers of queen bees for your apiary, whether you’re a beginner beekeeper or an experience apiarist.
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Beekeeping is a popular and rewarding hobby that offers a relaxing connection to nature. Once you’ve set up your hives, the hobby is relatively low maintenance, usually taking about 30 minutes per hive each week.
Beekeepers are busier in the late spring and summer, as they will need to check the hives weekly during the active season. This takes up to an hour per week and ensures there is enough space for the bees to store honey.
What is a Queen Bee?
The queen bee sits at the heart of every colony. Her primary role is to lay eggs and maintain the continuity and strength of the hive. A healthy, productive queen can lay up to 2000 eggs daily at the height of the season. However, her egg-laying rate will decline over time. If she stops layering altogether, the colony will struggle to thrive.
That’s why buying a new queen is an essential part of hive management. You may need to requeen your apiary to boost productivity or to improve the colony’s temperament.
Whether you’re replacing an ageing queen or strengthening your hive, buying a high-quality queen bee from a reputable supplier is crucial to the health and success of your bees.
You need to consider the factors that make a good queen bee, such as their egg-laying rate and their ability to produce the pheromones that maintain colony cohesion.
Read on to learn more about queen bees and discover five quality suppliers of queen bees for your apiary.
BS Honey Bees
BS Honey Bees is one of the best options for buying a queen bee in the UK. They are one of the most recognised suppliers within the beekeeping sector, and also offer a range of premium beekeeping equipment.
BS Honey Bees focuses on F1 Buckfast queens and Carniolan queens, both famous for their productivity and calm temperament. This is essential for supporting a strong colony throughout the whole season.
Another standout feature of this company is their range of polystyrene nuc boxes. These offer great insulation to keep your colony warm during the colder months. By combining stock with the right equipment, BS Honey Bees offers beekeepers everything they need to expand their apiary with ease.
Best for Calm and Productive Bees
BS Honey Bees are known for having calm and productive bees. The UK-bred bees thrive under British conditions, making them ideal for beekeepers who prioritise productivity.
If you need advice on buying the right bees and equipment or guidance on getting into the beekeeping business, you can’t go wrong with companies like this.
Northumberland Honey Co
Northumberland Honey Co is run by two breeders with a commitment to raising healthy queens. They carefully breed their queens for performance under local conditions, ensuring your colony gets the best start possible.
Northumberland Honey Co. is also able to ensure the health of your colony by providing incredibly productive bees. They also put a focus on temperament and disease resistance.
In addition to this, Northumberland Honey Co provides a lot of advice for beekeepers, whether you want to expand your apiary or manage your colony on a smaller scale.
Best for Expert Breeding
Northumberland Honey Co. is best for those who want to start a solid colony, as they balance their queens with productivity and manageable behaviour. This breeder is a great choice if you don’t have a specific breed of bee in mind or need some help with the selection process.
Ogston Bee Farm
Ogston Bee Farm is another great choice for quality queen bees. They are a small artisan bee farm on the Ogston Reservoir in Derbyshire’s Amber Valley.
Ogston Bee Farm raises bees from colonies that meet strict criteria, which ensures a high standard of robust health. They are a very small-scale supplier, which is ideal beekeepers who prioritise value over quantity.
Best for Artisan and Local Bees
Ogston Bee Farm is best for artisan and local bees, an ideal choice for beekeepers who want access to small and select stock.
Their bees are raised with the local conditions in mind, which makes them very resilient. They also have calm temperaments and offer strong, long-term consistency for your colony.
North Devon Queens
North Devon Queens focus on breeding Buckfast queens in West Buckland, North Devon.
Buckfast queens are famous for their excellent temperaments and outstanding honey production. This makes them suitable for beekeepers who want to have highly productive but manageable colonies.
Buckfast queens from North Devon Queens are bred with consistency, so you can expect strong growth, time and time again. The careful selection results in some very productive qualities, and they are great for both hobbyists and professional beekeepers.
Best for Buckfast Queens
North Devon Queens are great if you want Buckfast Queens that are ideally suited to UK conditions. If you want a fine balance between strong honey yields and bees with a great temperament, you can’t go wrong here.
This company can also provide you with advice on creating a colony with predictable behaviour.
HoneyFields Bee Farm
HoneyFields Bee Farm offers a wide range of queen bees, all of which come from their family-run bee farm in Warwickshire. The range is constantly expanding, and you can order online for added convenience.
HoneyFields Bee Farm are great at providing advice on the right bees for you, making them the perfect choice for new beekeepers. They can help you select the best bees for your colony, and also offer a range of 5-frame Bee Nucs.
A bee nuc (nucleus colony) is a miniature honey bee colony with a laying queen, worker bees, brood bees and honey/pollen stores. They are ideal as a ‘starter hive’ to build a full-sized colony.
Best for Quality Queens and Bee Nucs
If you need some high-quality queens and convenience is a priority, you can count on HoneyFields Bee Farm. They can provide you with everything you need to get started, and also offer great advice for beginner beekeepers.
These five suppliers are sure to have exactly what you need, whether you’re new to the fascinating hobby of beekeeping or buying a queen bee for an established apiary.