I'm trying to buy a queen for one of my hives. I live in western new york. Any recommendations on who to buy from and what type of queen. Russian, Italian etc.
PS this website is a life saver wouldn't know what to do without it!
You should update your profile from "hopelessly lost" and then you won't have to include your location every time you post.
There are a number of sources for queens. Someone in your local club may sell them, check the ads in the bee magazines, look around here for people's comments about queen suppliers.
As far as race, you need to decide what works best for you. If you're packed in tight with a lot of neighbors around who may be accepting but not super fond of bees, swarmy bees like carniolans or Russians may not be your best bet. If you have a big flow in the spring, but nothing through summer and fall, big layers like Italians will have to be fed to keep them from starving. Local survivors tend to be a good choice, since they're already acclimated to your climate.
There's no one perfect race of bees, just what works for you.
Quote from: Moonshae on June 06, 2008, 02:22:09 PM
Someone in your local club may sell them..
My recommendation is, whenever possible, buy locally-produced survivor-stock queens.
I agree with indypartridge. Buy local stock survivor queens. I ordered from purvis. They aren't far from here, I agree with their 'philosophy' and had queens available.
derrick