Breeder Queens
**LIMITED RELEASE**
Continuing into 2024, we will be offering a limited release of overwintered inseminated breeder queen nucs and inseminated breeder queens “not yet laying.” We do the queen/drone selection and insemination. These two options are a great supplement to your current breeding stock if you are looking for varroa resistance.
What is an overwintered open mated breeder queen nuc?
Overwintered open mated breeder queen nucs – These are spring/summer nucs that we tested for mites in late August and scored a 0/300 in an alcohol wash test. The colonies are not treated for mites and are overwintered. We then perform the Harbo VSH assay on them the following spring before sale to score their level of mite resistance. We use these high scoring colonies in our drone yards for open mating queens, drone collection for insemination and grafting to increase fitness of our stock. Each nuc comes with a sheet detailing the score of the colony, when the tests were performed and what stock they came from.
We will not ship a breeder nuc. These are pick up only. Availability will begin in early May to the middle of June. Their cost is $450 each.
What is an overwintered inseminated breeder queen nuc?
These are VSH queens that have been artificially inseminated with semen from drones that carry the VSH alleles. They will have been laying in these nucs the previous season and have overwintered in their respective colony. The best part is that you can graft immediately upon receiving your nuc and you don’t need to worry about queen introduction.
These breeder colonies have been VSH assayed using the Harbo VSH assay. Harbo’s VSH assay is a test to measure the level of VSH the colony contains. This involves counting the number of reproductive and non-reproductive mites within 100 capped brood cells. We score them on this metric and advance them into the breeding program if they have high marks. These nucs do NOT receive any mite treatments. If they were treated, it would create a false positive in the scoring process. We have tracked their progress the previous season and winter. As a result of this process, these breeder nucs have scored high enough to be worthy of grafting from.
We will not ship a breeder nuc. These are pick up only. Availability will begin in early May to the middle of June. Their cost is $600 each.
What’s an inseminated breeder queen that is “not yet laying”?
These queens are daughters from our best overwintered breeder queens that have been inseminated with drones from our other VSH colonies, but they are not assayed or laying at the time they are shipped.
They are shipped 24-48 hours after the insemination procedure is completed. A “not yet laying” queen will be more difficult to introduce than a laying queen and will require the use of a push in cage. Please see “Queen Introduction” for more information on the process. Experience in using a push in cage and introducing “not yet laying” queens is advised.
Please Contact Me and ask for advice if you are new to the introduction process. Availability will begin in early June until late August.
Their cost is $225 each plus shipping. Shipped via UPS overnight to your nearest terminal and held for pick up, no exceptions.
Shipping: June- August
We try our best to be flexible and work with your schedule. That being said, we will not sacrifice our quality to meet your deadline. We want to make sure that our stock is the best we can provide and sometimes that takes a little longer.
We only ship queens via UPS, no exceptions! Queens will be sent to your nearest terminal for pick up to insure best survival. We will send you an estimated shipping cost once we review your order with you.
Things can happen in transit and this is why we cannot guarantee "arrive alive." We will work with you if possible.
