Queens FAQs
Q. Are your queens bred in the UK?
A. The majority of the queens we sell on our website are imported from our breeders in Greece and Romania. We do sell UK bred queens that are produced from our team’s own queen rearing station in Hampshire. They are clearly titled ‘UK Bred Mated Queens’.
Q. How do I know if my colony is Queenless?
A. Please read our in-depth blog post about Queenless Colonies.
Q. What does W/C mean?
A. W/C means "week commencing". We dispatch our queens weekley within 48 hours of them being harvested from their colonies. The dispatch days are usually Wednesday and Thursday but this can vary. We do however notify you of the day we intend to post by email. We ask customers to select a W/C date, the ‘week-commencing’ date meaning the queens can be sent to you any day of that week to you. You are able to attached a note to your order if you need the queen posting on a specific date, we will liaise with you if we see a note attached.
Q. Do you bank your queens?
A. No we do not bank our queens. We aim for all queens to be dispatched within 48 hours of them being harvested from the mating nucs.
Q. Can I cancel my queen order?
A. Cancelled queen orders will be refunded minus and admin fee of £5. Deposits paid on live queens will not be refunded.
Returns will NOT be accepted under any circumstance and no refunds will be issued once the queens have been collected or dispatched to the customer. If we are unable to supply your order and need to cancel your live bee order we will refund in full any deposit paid.
Q. Is my queen going to be marked?
A. Yes, all queens are marke. We use the international colour coding.
Q. Can you clip my queen?
A. We do not offer a queen clipping service. Clipping a queens wing does not stop your colony from swarming, it can be useful in swarm control but is not a swarm prevention method.
Q. Why is my queen so small and able to fly?
A. Similarly, to a queen preparing to swarm, a caged queen will have a slight reduction of food intake and will have stopped laying due being removed from the colony. This will cause her to loose a little weight and be smaller. In hot weather she may also become a little dehydrated and this too will slim her down and she may appear smaller than you are expecting. Once she has been accepted into the colony you will see that she regains weight. The slimming downa and weight loss will enable her to fly.
And just like any other living animal, bees vary in size and is not necessarily an indicator of performance. All queens are harvested from sealed brood, only queens showing good laying pattern and quantity are harvested for selling.
Q. I believe my Queen is a virgin, can I get a refund?
A. All queens are harvested after they have shown laying ability, breeders ensure that the queens are on sealed worker brood so that no poorly mated queens (drone layers) are harvested.
There are a few reasons that your queen has not come into lay, please ensure that your colony is full of young nurse bees, they have plenty of forage (or are fed syrup) and that there is enough space for them to lay.
Q. How are your Queens sent?
A. All queens are in cages with around 5-10 attendant workers and they are then put into a cardboard wraps (similar to a book wrap) so that they have plenty of ventilation. The packaging has "Live Bee" stickers on them and they are dispatched with Royal Mail.
Q. Is it safe to post Queens?
A. We do believe it is safe to send the Queens through Royal Mail, they are trained to deal with invertebrates. It is very rare for queens to die during transport. If you are worried, we do allow collections.
Q. My Queen has arrived dead, what do I do?
A. If your queen order arrives and the queen is dead you must contact us by phone the same day to let us know. We will instruct you as to how to return the dead queen to us. A dead queen will be replaced once only. We will not accept back dead queens where the cage has been tampered with or if the cage has been offered up to your hive or nucleus.
Q. How do I introduce a Queen?
A. Please read our in-depth guide to Queen Introduction.
