A queen bee is the one fully developed female bee of a colony or hive. A queen bee is responsible for all of the genetic development within its own colony.
She lays the eggs, directs all of the workers and the drones. She can be delivered in the mail or a beekeeper can acquire one from their breeders.
What is the price? The price of a queen bee will change depending on many things. Typically, a queen bee will run anywhere from $25 to $100.
How Much Is A Queen Bee Worth?
Queen bees can be highly sought after and valued by beekeepers. Beekeepers will want them quickly when a hive may experience queen-related problems.
Queen bees are so valuable because she plays so many key roles in the hive. The queen is the only female with a fully developed set of ovaries and the beginning of the hive. A queen bee will lay as many as two hundred thousand eggs in a year.
In that way they provide an almost constant supply of worker bees, which greatly improves hive productivity. They produce a chemical scent that maintains unity in the colony.
So we have established that it is important to recognize the cost and availability of a queen bee.
The cost of a queen bee can vary widely. But when expecting the good quality, productive, healthy, and well-bred queen bee without any transportation charges, you can expect to pay $25 to $40.
In general – the most expensive queen bee regardless of breed is maximum $70 to $100. Some can bring much better price in the open market.
What Makes A Valuable Marketable Queen Bee?
When a bee is in its larval stage, fertilization and feeding are the two determining factors that define its value.
The queen bee chooses whether to fertilize each egg via her oviduct as she lays eggs.
Fertilized eggs can become workers or queens, whereas if the queen bee does not fertilize the egg, the egg will become a drone.
Feeding determines whether the egg becomes a queen or worker.
Larvae fed on a special nutrient-rich substance produced by the mandibular glands of ‘nurse’ worker bee larvae will likely become queen bees.
A hormone production is directing this process from the previous queen.
What other factors make a queen bee valuable?
Health:
It is critical that you consider the health of your queen bee! A queen bee is judged to be healthy by her productive ability; therefore, the rate she is able to produce eggs to sustain an adequate population.
If she can’t produce eggs fast enough due to poor health, the hive will supersede her naturally. This will also happen when the queen is getting older.
Queens are normally color-coded depending on the year, this gives buyers a clue about the queens age. The younger the queen the better she is!
Species:
Some honey bee species are viewed as superior to others; hence they provide better value. After years of genetic breeding several bee species have evolved. The species you elect to purchase should have the characteristics you desire.
For example– the breed you desire should not be prone to sting, and produce larger quantities of honey. In addition, they should be able to tolerate your local climate. Some of the most highly valued honeybee species are Carniolan, and Buck fast honeybee.
Breeding:
When I look for queens, I prioritize queens that come from productive colonies and that displayed productive characteristics. I also prioritize queens that came from hygienic disease-free colonies.
Backyard Bee Keeping
Backyard beekeeping is an exciting pastime and plays an important role in helping honeybee populations thrive.
More and more people are taking an interest in beekeeping as they try to live and eat sustainably.
A home beehive truly brings your space to life with healthy pollinators who will get a maximum yield for you from your plants.
You, of course, are rewarded with incredible amounts of golden delicious honey straight from the comb.
The raw golden honey from your hives, not processed and unpasteurized, is much sweeter and healthier than any store-bought honey, which likely has been pasteurized, eliminating much of the valuable attributes that honey has.
Backyard beekeeping does not ask all that much:
- Bees need water, sunlight, a good hive and will probably need feeding at some times of the year. If you can help it, put the hive in a good location against a protected fence or tree line.
- Every day bees will travel a large area to get enough pollen. Pollen is made from flowers, and that’s what bees consume. It’s thoughtful if you have a flowering bed in your yard, but having one isn’t an outright must.
The American golden Italian honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) is your best option for a DIY apiary.
They have a gentle temperament; they are fine honey producers, have low disease tolerance, susceptibility to natural enemies, and they are winter-proof. They also seem to swarm less than other stock.
How Do You Get a Queen Bee for Your Hive?
As previously mentioned, any fertilized egg can turn into a queen. What the larval eats makes a difference, even if it is the same egg.
Queens are developed from larva the worker bees choose to feed to generate sexually mature queen fleas; in most hives there will be only one adult mated queen.
The workers will usually follow her and defend her aggressively.
Package Bees
You can buy package bees through your local beekeeping supply store or local beekeeping association.
Package bees generally have queens, if they do not have a queen the supplier should introduce it to the workers.
This small cage can be wood, wire, or plastic. While in the package she is not alone.
The queen is with a few worker bees that are there to feed and take care of her until she is released. Most beekeepers prefer to use special queen introduction frames.
The most common method of introducing queens is the indirect method, meaning worker bees are fed ignorantly into the new queen by slowly eating through the food plug.
Nucleus Hives
A nucleus hive, often called a nuc, is a half-sized colony. It contains five frames of combs, bees, honey, developing bees, and the queen bee.
A nucleus is a little riskier than packaged bees. This is because the honeycomb can transfer pests and/or diseases from donor hive to your hive.
Otherwise, you can order the queen bee online and she can be shipped to you.
How do You Know a Good Quality Young Queen Bee when You Make a Purchase?
A queen bee can be recognized by:
- Appearance
- Behavioral characteristics
- Actual capabilities
And offspring older queen should have a large body, a long tapering belly that is full along the sides.
In a young queen bee, her long belly goes past the tips of her wings, making it look like she has short wings.
When you compare a queen with other bees, she has the back hairless and smooth and black versus a furry back from most workers.
Worker bees have black legs while queen bees have long light color legs.
How to Buy a Queen Bee?
The queen is the most essential member of the hive. So if you want to ensure that your hive is healthy, you may need to spend some money on a queen.
Bees bought from a breeding program may be more expensive. Breeder queens are bred and artificially inseminated using drone semen selected by the breeder.
A mated queen goes on mating flights and mates with drones in the area.
Breeders will introduce or provide the mating drones so the queens will have a better chance to mate with drones that exhibit the best traits they desire.
Keep in Mind – It is easy to buy queens online nowadays: However, be sure to ask the supplier about their live arrival guarantees prior to sending the queen. If the queen dies in transit, call the supplier and they will indicate the next steps for you.
If you are unable to buy a queen for whatever reason – for instance, if there are no queens available – there is no need to panic.
If your colony is strong and has plenty of bees, it can raise a new queen if given fresh eggs from another colony.
Final Thoughts
No bee colony can survive without a queen. Queens must be replaced every 4-6 weeks. Fortunately, we can now easily buy queen bees online.
Queens are often shipped in small cages with adjacent space occupied by a few young worker bees to look after and feed the queen until it is released.