Wildflower Meadows’ mated queen bees begin with a proven instrumentally inseminated breeder queen that is expressing the desired traits that we are looking for: mite resistance, productivity, gentleness, and rapid spring build up. We then naturally mate the offspring of our best breeder queens in areas that are heavily saturated with drone stock that demonstrates the same positive traits. Wildflower Meadows’ goal is to overload the mating areas with lots and lots of desirable drones, so that the queen bees have the best likelihood of successful mating.
Wildflower Meadows is also constantly testing different strains of Italian bees and VSH bees from all across the country to find new quality breeding stock. These colonies are an excellent source of quality drones. We supplement our mating areas with the best of these colonies in order to broaden the genetic pool of drones.
Wildflower Meadows’ mated queen bees are approximately three to four weeks old prior to being shipped. All mated queen bees must prove themselves by laying a consistently solid brood pattern for at least two weeks during this period. The mated queen bees that are ultimately chosen for sale and shipped to you are our best quality, hand-selected proven queens.
