The Italian is the most common of all bees maintained by beekeepers. The Italian honey bee originates from the continental part of Italy, South of the Alps, and North of Sicily. The subspecies may have survived the last ice age in Italy. It is genetically a different subspecies than the subspecies from the Iberian peninsula and from Sicily. It is the most widely distributed of all honey bees, and has proved adaptable to most climates from subtropical to cool temperate, but it is less satisfactory in humid tropical regions.
Italian bees, having been conditioned to the warmer climate of the central Mediterranean, are less able to cope with the "hard" winters and cool, wet springs of more northern latitudes.
Our Italian Queens have been open-mated in our Florida Apiary. We keep an abundance of hearty drones from our most productive queens available to mate our Virgin Queens. This provides queens with all the benefits of the Italian race, mated to proven producers that are acclimated to the tropical Florida environment.
Our Italian Queens have never been banked, and are allowed to lay a minimum of 30 days before they are removed from the hive. Studies have shown that allowing the queen to lay uninterrupted for the first 30 days results in improved health, longevity, and brood viability. This also gives us adequate time to properly evaluate the queen's performance before shipping.
Characteristics:
shows strong disposition to breeding and very prolific
excellent housekeeper (which some scientists think might be a factor in disease resistance)
for areas with continuous nectar flow and favorable weather throughout the summer
Queen Shipping Information
Queen Shipments are made on Mondays and Tuesdays of each week. We ship via United States Postal Service (USPS). Options are USPS Express or USPS Priority. We strongly advise the insurance option. We make every effort to see that your queens arrive in good condition however we can not guarantee live delivery.
No refunds will be given after the bees have shipped.
Please examine the contents of your shipment IMMEDIATELY upon delivery. We also suggest giving a small amount of water upon arrival. Should your queens not survive shipment, please file a claim immediately with USPS. We will provide you with any assistance that we can in filing your claim. As per USPS instructions, you should not attempt to return packages for which you plan to make claims. We also advise you to take pictures.
Instructions for Queen Introduction Note: It’s not uncommon for one or more of the worker bee attendants to have died.
WARNING!! Avoid keeping in any room where pesticides are used, especially “NO PEST STRIPS”. Also avoid leaving in sunshine. Keep at 65-80 degrees in a dark place away from drafts.
Place one drop of water on the screen away from the candy side as soon as the queens arrive.
The queen(s) that you have received are in a combination shipping and introduction cage. There is no need to remove the worker bee attendants or cork. This cage provides food (white sugar candy) during shipment which also acts as a “timed release” barrier for your hive bees to eat through, allowing several days pheromone adjustment.
If the queen is not to be placed in your hive within a few hours, place one drop of pure water on the screen of the cage so the workers can use it to dissolve the candy. Repeat every day the cage is not in the hive. (The queen should survive several days in the candy cage, but the sooner she is introduced the better.)
The hive to receive the queen must have no queen or queen cells already present. Ideally, the hive should be queenless for at least 24 hours prior to introduction.
The cage should be placed in the middle of the brood nest (if no brood is present, place in the middle of the cluster). Position the cage between two frames, so that the candy end points up and the screen is not blocked. Squeeze the frames around the cage to firmly suspend it, any damage to the comb will be repaired by the bees when the cage is removed. Make sure the hole at the candy end is not blocked. Note: If 10 frames are used, one frame may have to be removed to accommodate the cage.
The bees in your colony will chew through the candy and release the queen within a few days. The colony should be disturbed as little as possible for the next two weeks while the queen establishes her brood nest.
The Italian is the most common of all bees maintained by beekeepers. The Italian honey bee originates from the continental part of Italy, South of the Alps, and North of Sicily.
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