IQBA Mated Queen

One of the simplest ways to make a colony queen-right is by introducing a mated queen. A mated queen is a queen that has already mated with drones and is ready to start laying eggs. Mated queens can be a good choice if you need to quickly establish a new hive or if you have a hive that needs a new queen.

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To prevent your newly mated queen from being eliminated, you must first confirm that your colony truly is queenless. I strongly advise that the colony into which you are introducing a queen have some open or capped brood. The reason is that a pheromone released by the brood inhibits the workers from producing their own unfertilized eggs. It also assures that there will be young bees to take care of the brood your new queen will produce. Laying workers will often kill an introduced queen.

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All McComBees Apiaries queens for sale are open mated.

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Mated queens are marked with the correct color for their birth year and are sold in a JZBZ queen cage with candy.

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Place the queen cage above the brood area and the bees will eat the candy and release the queen within 48 hours.