Fruitful Bees Buckfast and Ligustiche

The Fecond Queen Bees in both the Buckfast and Ligustica breed are a highly sought after product in beekeeping. fertile queens are capable of being productive for years. When a Buckfast or Ligustica queen mates, she accumulates enough semen inside her body (specifically in her spermatheca) to be able to produce fertile eggs for the rest of her life.

When a bee is fertile

A bee changes its status as a virgin queen bee to fertile queen bee after the completion of a particular fertilization process that will take place only once in her entire life. The mating of a virgin queen takes place during the nuptial flight.

The wedding flight

A source of excitement on the part of the entire swarm, the nuptial flight is an important event for bees . It starts a new production cycle by the new and young queen. The nuptial flight takes place in a meeting point where all the drones of the hive will participate. To gather all the drones ( male bee ), the queen emits pheromones which are particular olfactory hormones capable of attracting the attention of all the drones.

The queen bees mate with all the drones in the entire hive. Being the only mating possibility that will never repeat itself, the queen needs to store as much seed as possible to be able to produce fertile eggs </ strong> for the rest of her existence. After mating, all the drones die and the queen returns to the hive where her workers will take care of checking that fertilization has taken place correctly.

So here's how a queen bee becomes fertile .

When does he start deposing the queen?

The queen bee usually begins to lay eggs 2 to 5 days after mating. Fertilized eggs will give birth to female bees while unfertilized eggs will give birth to drones. Reproduction is the fulcrum of a swarm that integrates its energies with the inclusion of new individuals with constancy. The strength of a swarm is determined precisely by its size. A small swarm is equivalent to a weak swarm.

An efficient fertile queen bee, she produces up to 1500 eggs a day! This makes you understand how important the presence of a fertile queen is inside a hive. Bees are very attentive to this factor and an underproductive fertile queen is immediately replaced. When a queen bee ages, its egg production is not the same as it was in its most prosperous period. With aging, the egg-laying rhythms slow down and the workers immediately begin to build royal cells in which the larvae destined to play the role of new queen will develop. Meanwhile, the old sovereign, now not very productive, is deprived of royal jelly and begins to run out of all energy. With the birth of the new virgin queen, the old queen leaves the hive and with it a part of the swarm goes away. This process is called swarming.

Observation of cells

The queen lays her eggs in the cells in the honeycombs. By observing them carefully, you will notice how the queen lays only one egg well anchored exactly in the center of each cell. Most of the cells contain larvae which will give birth to new worker bees. At the edges of the honeycombs, on the other hand, we normally find the cells of the drones recognizable because they are larger. The larvae destined to develop as queen bees will eventually be present inside the royal cells.

Recognizing Buckfast fertile bees

The Buckfast fecund bee is an excellence of Apicoltura Laterza. The Buckfast bee is a very popular type in the sector. We are talking about a cross between an Italian queen and drones of the English stock. Being an intertwining of different breeds, Buckfast bees are characterized by their strong resistance to different types of climate but also to parasites and diseases. They are very strong individuals and therefore highly sought after by beekeepers. The only elements in its favor are the low tendency to swarm and a good ability to produce honey.

Ligustic Bees

Apicoltura Laterza has also been involved for years in the production of Ligustiche queen bees . The ligustica bee is a completely Italian species. These are bees with a more tapered build and lighter colors distinguished by very particular golden shades. This bee has important characteristics for beekeepers such as a marked docility and good honey production.

The Italian honey bee is very industrious and is therefore in great demand not only in Italy but also abroad.

Selected ligustic bees

Apicoltura Laterza deals with the production and sale of selected ligustic queen bees . We operate in the production taking into account the genetic profile of each bee. This way we guarantee you bees that have all the best features. We carefully observe the behavior of our swarms, trying to pass on every positive feature to future generations of bees.

Purchase Fruitful Queen Bees

If you need to buy fertile bees for your breeding, choose Apicoltura Laterza! You can buy your bees directly online with fast and professional shipments. You will also receive a health certificate certifying the excellent health of our bees! We produce Buckfast queen bees and Ligustic queen bees both virgin and fertile.

Do you want to buy? Do it now on www.apicolturalaterza.it or Contact us!