We follow a strict, careful process when handling queen cells, creating the best possible environment to control the quality of our queens from the start. We transfer our queen cells from strong starter colonies to finisher colonies, feeding them natural pollen, MegaBee™, and sugar syrup to promote vigorous growth and well-being. We have certain size criteria the cells need to reach before they can be placed in our mating colonies, once in our mating colonies the queens are left in there for a minimum of one month before being caged and sent to our customers. Our careful process ensures the queen is performing well, allowing time to highlight any potential issues an individual queen may have, and offering time for her to produce the right level of the five known pheromones (9-oxo-(E)-2-decenoic acid, (+)- and (−)-9-hydroxy (E)-2-decenoic acid, methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylethanol). These pheromones play a crucial part in requeening. If the queen lacks certain amounts of each pheromone the hive may not accept her into the new colony. Due to breeding both Italian and Carniolan queens at the same time, we can only stock a certain number of queens per breed. If you require a few hundred of a certain breed, please book in advance.