Mated Honey Bee Queens
Pick up locally raised, mated queens in Birmingham to boost colonies, split hives, or requeen with ease this season.
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Mated Queen Bees
The Mated Queen Bee is one of the most important tools a beekeeper can use to strengthen or expand their apiary. Whether you are splitting hives in the spring, rescuing a queenless colony, or requeening in the fall to prepare for the next season, a mated queen provides a reliable head start.
These queens are pickup only from our store in downtown Birmingham — we do not ship queens at this time.
NOTE: All queens should be picked up within 7 days of ordering or on their pickup date if preordering. They cannot be guaranteed after 7 days. Remember that these are live animals.
Key Features and Benefits
- Pickup only: Available at our downtown Birmingham store; no shipping offered.
- Time-sensitive: Must be picked up within 7 days of ordering or on scheduled pickup date.
- Spring & fall use: Ideal for hive splits, rescuing queenless colonies, and requeening.
- Italian genetics: Docile, productive bees that are excellent honey producers.
- VSH traits: Certain lines bred for natural Varroa Sensitive Hygiene behavior.
- Multiple sources: Queens available from Alabama, California, and Florida breeders.
Queen Options
Alabama Queens (Italian)
- Mated in Alabama.
- Known for docile temperament, long brood cycles, and quick spring buildup.
- Excellent honey production.
- Low to moderate propolis producers.
VSH Italian Queens (California)
- Sourced from a breeder in California with decades of experience.
- Supplied in JZBZ cages.
- Selected for Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH), the natural ability to detect and remove mites from capped brood.
VSH Italian Pol-Line (Florida)
- Bred in central Florida with Pol-Line genetics.
- Queens are daughters of breeder queens from South Carolina.
- Maintains Italian traits with added mite resistance benefits.
- Read more about Pol-Line queens here.
Detailed Description
A mated queen can be the difference between a struggling colony and a thriving one. By introducing a mated queen, beekeepers can quickly reestablish brood production in a queenless hive, create splits to grow their apiary, or ensure strong colonies going into the next season.
Our selection includes Alabama-mated Italian queens, valued for their docility, productivity, and adaptability; California VSH Italian queens, prized for their Varroa-sensitive hygiene traits; and Florida VSH Italian Pol-Line queens, bred for genetic strength and mite resistance.
All queens are provided in secure cages and are pickup only. Beekeepers should plan to collect their queens within 7 days to ensure health and viability.
Watch our video on installing a queen
Read our post about how to install a queen
To start a return, visit our return portal here.
We have a 30-day return policy, which means you have 30 days after receiving your item to request a return.
To be eligible for a return, your item must be in the same condition that you received it, unworn or unused, with tags, and in its original packaging. The order will also need to have been placed through our retail store or through www.foxhoundbeecompany.com
Customer Reviews
Realized our recently caught swarm no longer had a queen so we rushed down to FH to get a queen. Luckily they were still in stock with the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene queens from California. The queen was naturally released from the cage within two days and was already laying when inspected.
Staff was super helpful and respectful! Was also my first visit to the store.
Our hive swarmed and left part of the workers. We didn’t have any brood and no queen could be found. We bought a queen and upon pickup had great information and suggestions provided by the staff. The hive accepted the queen and now we have brood.
Thank you for the queens they great
First off foxhound is a bee keeper’s paradise, they have so much selection it’s unreal, I won’t go anywhere else now after visiting their store.
Secondly picking up our queen was the easiest process, the queen was healthy and the container was humming with healthy tender bees and our queen.
I love the packaging it’s simple , bee safe n carry home safe, our queen was quite vocal n so were her tenders , I’ll be getting my live bees here from now on
A++ experience
Installed Queen pre Foxhounds instructions. Everything went fine. It's the hive in the middle of video.