Skip to product information
1 of 5
The Hive Guys Logo

Mated F1 Buckfast Queen Honey Bees for Sale - Delivery April or May - The Hive Guys™

Mated F1 Buckfast Queen Honey Bees for Sale - Delivery April or May - The Hive Guys™

Regular price £32.00 GBP
Regular price Sale price £32.00 GBP
Sale Sold out
Taxes included.

Out of stock

Our open-mated queen bee are produced with some of Europe's best genetics. With a docile temperament and fantastic honey production they some of the best queen bees for sale in the UK.

Why choose one of our F1 Buckfast queen bees for sale? 

  • Docile temperament.
  • Calm on the comb - don't fly up into your face.
  • Fantastic honey production.
  • Better disease resistance, little to no drifting between hives that spreads disease.
  • Great resistance to over-wintering.
  • A good tolerance to varroa mites.

Before purchasing, please read our guide on how to introduce the queen to your hive here. 

Guaranteed to arrive alive. Delivery is £9.50, no matter how many queens you buy. Royal Mail Special Delivery Next-day Guaranteed, before 1:00pm.

Delivery Date

It's £9.50 for queen bee delivery across the UK; no matter how many you buy. This is an expensive service as it's shipped using Royal Mail 24 Pre-1:00pm service. A very reliable service across the UK and allows us to guarantee than your queens arrive in the best condition. It is a signed for service and requires than someone is in to sign for it.

As this is a live queen bee, we aren't able to accept returns. If you should have any problems, please contact us.

Using our £9.50 delivery choice, we can guarantee that your queen bee will arrive alive. Should you should have any problems, please contact us and we'll be able to help.

Email: help@thehiveguys.com

Freephone: 0800 008 6081

View full details

Customer Reviews

Based on 3 reviews
33%
(1)
33%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
33%
(1)
R
Robert ferguson

Hive guys,sent me an email to say queens in the post.they arrived next day,930 am.All queens ,placed in hives with 2 frames of brood.They should be good for summer flow.thankyou hive guys keep it up.

J
John Hall

Green marking had almost disappeared on delivery. and has now gone completely. Laying well

J
Jason Walker
Poor

Service is good, notifications of delivery is good. Queens arrived dare I say sweating and didn't look in the best of conditions but it was a nice day not to hot in the 12/14 deg.
Introduced queen 1 and she accepted very quickly, queen 2 and 3 didn't look in good shape and looked a bit on the small side. Sadly queen 2 and 3 were accepted but layed chalk brood (due to stress of delivery of expect) from Malta to UK then UK deliveries wouldn't be the best of condition. Queen 2 and 3 have since been delt with by their respective colonies, which is an expensive exercise in any hobby.
Queen 1 still isn't laying as I would expect.
I am in no way an expert in beekeeping (4 years) but splits and introduction is the one thing I am 100% sure of due to the expense of the queens.
I have now decided its better and easier to rear my own queens as chalk brood seems to be very common with commercial queen bees. At least I'm not wasting £100 and £100 of pounds on queens that might not be accepted.
I think that queen 2 and 3 weren't accepted because the chalk brood was obvious to the colonies.

Q&A Icon
Questions & Answers

Why should I buy a queen bee?

In short, the advantages of buying a pre-mated queen honey bee are as follows. Speed: you don't need to wait for a queen to be mated which can take up to 4 weeks. Reliability: It's not a guarantee that the queen will be mated. She could get eaten by a blackbird on her mating flight. Genetics: Our Buckfast mated queen's mothers are some of the best genetics in the country. Known for their docile temperament and fantastic honey production.

How do the queen bees arrive?

Each queen bee arrives in a plastic butler cage. This is full of fondant (hard sugar paste) that the bees feed on. The queen comes marked with the colour of the year (blue for 2025). They are able to live in here for a few days after the queen arrives, but we'd recommend that they get into the hive within 1 day.

Do I need more than just a queen to start a colony?

Yes. You will need to do a split from an existing colony of bees or use the queen the replace an existing colony's queen.

What are Buckfast bees?

Buckfast is a breed of bee. They were selectively bred by Brother Adam at Buckfast Abby in England in the 1900s. They have become the industry standard in beekeeping for their calm nature, disease resistance and great honey production.

Are these mated queen bees or virgins?

These are mated queen bees for sale, not vigrins. This means that there is no need to wait for the queen to get mated they're ready to go. This gives you the advantage of not having to wait 3-4 weeks for a queen to mate and lay. You can have a new queen up and running in as little time as 7 days.

What does the 'F1' part stand for?

F1 stands for 'first filial generation'. This means that they are the direct, pure offspring of a F0 Buckfast mother. It's the closest genetics you can get to a pure-bread Buckfast honey bee queen without the need for complex (and expensive) instrumental insemination.

Where do these queen bees ship from?

Our queen bees ship direct from Kent, UK with Royal Mail Special Delivery. This way we can guarantee that they'll arrive in the best condition.

Will my queen arrive marked?

Yes, we mark all our queens with POSCA paint. Your queen will come marked with the colour of the year (blue for 2025)

Will my queen arrive clipped?

No, unfortunately, we are unable to provide clipped queens at this current time. We are working on adding the ability for customers to choose this.