The Famous ‘Victorian’ Queen Bee

After many years of crossbreeding from selected survivor stock, together with stringent field testing and peer evaluation, we feel that we have a Queen Bee that will perform well in our current beekeeping conditions. Especially in the harsher Canadian climate.

We ensure all our virgin queens (in the four frame nucleus hives) have access to a huge number of drones (in the three supered hive). This closed mating yard produces queens from April through to September. All our processes are natural, just as nature wanted it to be.

Queen Bees

We have a Queen Bee that will perform well in our current beekeeping conditions.

We encourage beekeepers to requeen in the fall as this leads to the young queen out laying the varroa destructor and produces more young workers for winter. These young queens very rarely swarm in the following season, thus negating time consuming swarm control procedures.

As we do not produce enough queens to satisfy the ongoing demand for our Victorian Queens, we strongly recommend placing your orders early in the year.

Our Victorian Queens have maintained their excellent performance in our Canadian climate and are still the favourite choice,  Our 2022 (Yellow) over wintered queens will be available from the end of  May onwards weather permitting. 2023 (Red) Queens will be available from June onwards. Please note that October is usually the final month for introducing new queens.
Remember the queen colour for 2024 is GREEN.

SERVICE AVAILABLE

BEE REMOVALS

As a result of the many requests received for help when a swarm of bees arrives on your property, we now have made staff available to assist with their removal. Contact 250-764-1825 for assistance.

Four Frame Nucleus Colony

Four Frame Nucleus Colony. Note the increase in colony size. Selected Nucleus Hives.

The easiest way to start beekeeping is with a Nucleus colony. We supply you with four shallow frames with bees at various stages of development, together with a marked Queen. These four frames will be placed in your nucleus hive or your full size hive and allows for a rapid build up which in turn, results in a good honey crop. Our Queens are naturally mated in isolated bee yards here in Kelowna, this ensures mating with our drones only and preserves the gene pool. The pictures to the left show how we select and test the best breeders. Note the increase in bee population and the elimination of unacceptable performers. Compare this to purchasing a package of bees and having to wait for comb to be drawn out and then 21 days for worker bees to emerge. By then the honey flow is over.BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTPast students and BBC club members can now purchase certain equipment directly from us. As this is an effort to assist beginners, quantities will be limited. Just send us an email request and we will attempt to meet your needs.

Bees are the best pollinators.

You NEED bees for these!

Pollination Services

Pollination is the difference between an excellent crop and a poor crop. Bees have proved themselves as the best pollinating insects because there are thousands of them in a single hive, thus ensuring that each blossom gets visited and pollinated.

The bees have done their work, the fruit trees can now get on with the next phase of developing the perfect fruit. Keep in mind that export quality fruit will always command a much higher selling price.

More Pollinating Information:

• Click here to view the Information document prepared for the BC Fruit Growers Association.
• Click here for an example of a pollinating contract.

Booking early insures your orchard will be serviced in 2023