All the queens we sell at Indian Summer Honey Farm are derived from our own stock of overwintered, healthy, abundant honey producing, varroa mite surviving stock.
We have been self-selecting from survivor stock over the past 18 years. When we began raising our own queen cells, the durability and vigor of our Carniolan cross stock quickly caught the attention of neighboring beekeepers who encouraged us to raise cells and queens to sell to beekeepers across the country. Thanks to repeat customers who have been pleased and who have spread the word to friends of theirs, we now produce and sell approximately 1,000 queens a week mid-March through mid-May each year. While it’s still a small queen business by today’s standards, we take pride in that every queen we sell is a well mated, handsome representative of her line -one that we would be proud to have in our own hives.
We promise to diligently do our best in the raising and handling of the bees we sell, but ultimately, her performance will be most influenced by the treatment she receives from the beekeepers that purchase her.