Best Queens For Sale

We are lucky in the UK to have some great suppliers of Queens. If you need a queen early in the year you are likely going to be limited to queens mated abroad in places like Italy where the climate is warmer earlier in the year.
UK mated queens are normally available from mid May, you might need to pre-order before then mind.
Below I've listed the UK queen suppliers I'm aware of and have purchased from a couple of them.

Black Mountain Honey

Types: Buckfast (UK and non UK mated), Italian Ligustica, Jolanta, VSH Buckfast, Carniolan, ELGON Buckfast, Primorsky.

Prices: £34 to £50 depending on quantity and breed.

Link: https://www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk/product-page/buckfast-queens-for-sale

Well know for his YouTube videos, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey sells both queens he has bred and varieties from other bee farmers.
The Jolanta queens for example are from the legendary Murray McGregor (Denrosa apiaries) and Jolanta Modliszewska who runs the queen rearing operation.
I've bought some of his imported Buckfast queens in the past, delivery was quick and it was packed very well with clear labeling saying live bees to encourage Royal Mail to handle with care. There was no problem with acceptance, the temperament of the offspring was great and they produced huge amount of honey the following summer.

Northumberland Honey

Types: Northumberland Dark Bee, VSH Northumberland Buckfast (from Varroa sensitive and hygienic breeder queens)

Prices: £29 to £43 depending on quantity. Virgin queens available for £19 each.

Link: https://www.northumberlandhoney.co.uk/bees

Their queens are bred/mated at their apiaries on the Cumbria / Northumberland border. They are marked with the correct colour for the year and the wings can be clipped if requested.

One of my first queens came from Northumberland Honey, the daughters were calm and they produced a good amount of honey.

BS Honey Bees

Types: Buckfast, Carniolan, Essex Buckfast

Prices: £34 to £46 depending on breed and quantity.

Link: https://www.bshoneybees.co.uk/queens

I have several BS Honey Bees poly nuc boxes which I love but I haven't purchased queens from them before.

I purchased a few Buckfast queens from them in April 2024 for some early splits, they will have been mated in somewhere like Greece or Hungary where the season starts a bit earlier due to the warmer weather. I ordered on a Saturday morning and they were dispatched the same day for Sunday delivery, the packaging was good with a picture and clear text saying live bees.
The postman doing the delivery mentioned he had taken extra care of the package having kept it by him in the cab and asked if he could see the queens.
I haven't had the queens long enough to comment on temperament/performance yet but they all looked fantastic and were accepted without a hitch.

Early queens ordered from BS Honey

Daniel and Tristan have a built up a good reputation and been around for a long time so it's not surprising the reviews for their queens are positive.

Approximate availability guideline

Native Queen Bees (Jonathan Getty)

Types: AMM (Apis mellifera mellifera)

Prices: £37.50 to £40 depending on quantity.

Link: https://www.native-queen-bees.com/queen-order-page/

Again I haven't any personal experience buying from Jonathan but he often gets good reviews on the Beekeeping Forum. AMM also known as the black bees are the only native bee to the UK and Ireland. They are well adapted to are cooler (and wetter) climate.
To find out more about the AMM bees and queens take a look at Jonathans website or the Beekeeping Forum.

Border Honey

Types: Buckfast (UK Mated)

Prices: £42.00

Link: https://borderhoney.com/pages/our-queens

Their breeding stock comes from one of Europe’s leading Buckfast breeders, Ivan Nielsen, based in Denmark. They then raise and mate F1 queens in the UK, the queens they sell are the same queens they use in their own honey production hives. They supply both professional and hobby beekeepers and target the following characteristics for the queens they produce:

• Good temperament
• Low swarming tendency
• Superb honey gathering ability
• Resistance to disease

Exmoor Bees

Types: Buckfast (UK Mated)

Prices: £48.00 to £300 depending on type.

Link: https://www.exmoorbeesandbeehives.co.uk/

Exmoor Buckfast F1 queens are available from mid May (weather permitting) until the end of September. Queens are sent in nicot plastic cages with 8 to 10 attendant bees to look after the queen during transit. Like many other supplies their open mated F1 queens they sell are sisters of the queens they using in their own hives.
For £100 they sell queesn that have been mated at the world famous isolated mating station on Dartmoor, the true home of the Buckfast bee and used by Brother Adam to breed the original Buckfast bees. These queens can be used for breeding purposes after daughter testing.
For £300 they sell breeder queens, these have either been inseminated with select drone semen or are isolated mated queens, whose daughters have been tested and proved themselves. These queens are about one year old at the time of sale.

BHP Queens

Types: Buckfast

Prices: £41.00 to £45 depending quantity.

Link: https://www.bhpqueens.co.uk/order-queen-bees.html

They can also clip the queens for £2 per queen if that's what you want. Each year they start with new pedigree (F0) Buckfast breeder queens as their queen mothers from Keld Brandstrup, Buckfast DK. These queens have been specially selected after testing their colonies for low swarm tendency, good comb behaviour, low aggressiveness, high honey yield, hygienic behaviour and lack of nosema.
BHP Queens rear approximately 2000 queens each year from a woodland nursery for customers across the UK.