Queen Bee Breeding and Sale: Everything You Need to Know

The giant queen bee is the heart of the hive, responsible for egg laying and colony growth. Her selection and breeding are essential processes to maintain a healthy and productive bee population. In this article, we will explore how long a queen bee lives, how the queen bee is born, her mating flight, and the best queen bee breeding and queen bee sales techniques, with a focus on the Carniolan bee breed.

Queen Bee Birth and Development

The birth of a queen bee occurs under specific conditions: the colony decides to raise a new queen when the current one is old, weak, or missing. Bees construct royal cells, where they lay fertilized eggs that will become queens.

For a larva to develop into a queen instead of a worker bee, it must be fed with royal jelly throughout its growth. This special food allows the virgin queen to develop a fully functional reproductive system, making her the only bee capable of laying eggs.

If an unfertilized egg hatches, it will develop into a drone, the male bee, whose only role is to mate with a new queen during the mating flight.

Mating Flight and Queen Bee Fertilization

Around 5–7 days after birth, the virgin queen is ready for her mating flight. During this phase, she leaves the hive to mate with multiple drones, storing sperm that she will use for egg laying throughout her life.

After Mating

After mating, the queen returns to the hive and will never leave again unless the colony swarms. From this moment on, her only function is to lay eggs, ensuring the continuity of the colony.

A queen bee possesses an extraordinary reproductive ability – she can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day, ensuring the continuous renewal of worker bees.

How Long Does a Queen Bee Live?

One of the most common questions is: how long does a queen bee live? Her lifespan depends on various factors, including genetic selection and hive conditions.

On average, a queen bee lives between 3 and 5 years.
Over time, her egg-laying capacity declines, prompting the worker bees to raise a new queen.
Sometimes, the queen is naturally replaced when the bees build new royal cells.

Thanks to queen bee breeding, beekeepers can control and improve queen bee quality, increasing their lifespan and productivity.

Carniolan Bee: The Perfect Queen for Honey Production

The Carniolan bee is one of the most popular breeds for queen bee breeding, thanks to its docile nature and excellent adaptability to different climates. Its main characteristics include:

✅ High egg-laying productivity.
✅ Strong resistance to diseases.
✅ Efficient resource management and sustainable honey production.

For this reason, Carniolan queen bee sales are highly popular among beekeepers looking to improve their honey production.

The Queen Bee Leaves the Hive: Swarming

In some cases, the queen bee may leave the hive, causing swarming. This happens when the colony becomes too large, or the current queen is no longer efficient.

The swarming process:

The old queen leaves the hive, taking a group of worker bees with her.
A new queen emerges and takes over the old hive.
The colony splits into two separate families.

With proper queen bee breeding techniques, beekeepers can prevent uncontrolled swarming and production losses.

Queen Bee Breeding and Sales

Queen bee breeding is a crucial process for maintaining strong and productive colonies. Apicoltura Laterza specializes in queen bee sales, providing high-quality, selected queen bees, ready to be introduced into your hives.

Thanks to advanced genetic selection methods, each queen bee for sale is chosen based on her ability to:

✔ Lay a large number of eggs per day.
✔ Ensure the colony’s continuous development.
✔ Maintain calm and productive behavior.

📦 Order your queen bee today and improve the quality of your beekeeping! 🐝