Cordovan, virgin
Virgin queens will be available in limited quantities starting from early May.
When placing an order in the online store, choose the period in which you want to receive the queen bees. The number of available queen bees in each period is limited. We encourage beekeepers to reserve their queen bees in advance to ensure delivery in the desired period!
Additionally, there is an option to choose whether the queen bee should be marked or unmarked with the 2026 white color.
All queen bees are bred from known lineage and carefully selected breeder queens tested in our apiaries.
Cordovan Ligustica (Italian) genetics and significance in breeding:
- Cordovan bees have a recessive colour trait — a pigmentation mutation where black pigment is replaced by brown. Cordovan bees therefore appear lighter, golden, “leather-coloured.” Worker bees show this colouring only if the trait is present both in the queen and in the drones she has mated with.
- The Cordovan colouring is a visible “genetic marker” that breeders use to track crosses and maintain lines, helping distinguish their breeding stock from the surrounding background population.
- Cordovan colonies are useful for testing mating stations. If worker bees produced by new queens start to become noticeably darker, it often indicates the presence of foreign drones at the mating site.
- Cordovan itself is not a “productivity gene” — it is a colour trait. Productivity, gentleness, swarming tendency, and other characteristics depend on the specific breeding line, not on colour alone.
- Practical benefit for the beekeeper: the lighter/orange colouring often makes it easier to spot the queen and visually orient within the colony (especially if she is not marked).
Cordovan Ligustica bee colonies:
- Form strong, large colonies,
- Excellent foragers when nectar is widely available in nature,
- Characteristic Cordovan colouring: the bees are usually lighter, ranging from yellowish-orange to a warm brown tone.
- Winter consumption of food is uneconomical, overwinter worse than other races in severe winters (Finnish-Italian queens have better wintering ability),
- Are very gentle during the working procedures,
- Have low tendency to swarm,
- Greater tendency to rob than other races, if there is low or no nectar in nature.
Virgin queens are intended to replace old queens in bee colonies or to create new colonies.
Advantages of virgin queens:
- At the beginning of the season, virgin queens are available at least 3 weeks earlier than naturally mated queens, which is essential for replacement of old queens in main colonies or creation of new colonies as early in season as possible,
- Virgin queens have a lower price than mated queens.
Disadvantages of virgin queens:
- Virgin queens need time to go on the “wedding” flight, but there is a risk that favorable weather conditions do not occur for a long time (rain, wind, air temperature below 19°C),
- Queens may not return from the "wedding" flight for various reasons (queen gets lost, returns into the wrong colony, is eaten by birds, etc.),
- Virgin queens are more difficult to introduce to a colony than laying queens.
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