Our Best Seller — and the Smartest Way to Order a Mated Queen

When you choose our First Available mated queen, you are getting the best queen we have ready to ship on your selected date — period. No waiting for a specific breed to come available. No scheduling around a single-breed production run. Just a top-quality, Heritage Bee Farm-raised mated queen, shipped to you the moment she is ready.

This option is our most popular for a reason: it puts a proven, productive queen in your hive faster, and it gives us the flexibility to match you with the strongest queen available on your ship date — whether that is Italian, Carniolan, or Hybrid.

What 'First Available' Means

Our apiary raises Italian, Carniolan, and Hybrid mated queens on overlapping production schedules. On any given ship date, the first queens ready to go are the healthiest, most developed queens across all of our active production locations — regardless of breed.

When you select First Available, you are telling us: send me your best. We match you with the queen that is fully mated, actively laying, and ready to establish herself in your hive right now. If you have a strong breed preference, we offer individual breed listings as well — but for most beekeepers, the First Available queen performs just as well or better, because she was chosen on merit, not by breed alone.

What All Our Queens Have in Common

• Raised from proven breeder colonies selected for strong brood production, gentle temperament, and overall colony health
• Naturally open-mated in our Central Florida apiaries — diverse, resilient genetics from local drone populations
• Individually inspected before shipping — we do not send a queen we would not put in our own hives
• Shipped via UPS Next Day Air in temperature-appropriate queen cages with attendant bees and candy plug
• Raised in Myakka City, Florida — our warm Central Florida climate allows us to begin grafting earlier in the season than most producers, giving our customers earlier access to quality queens

Why Beekeepers Love the First Available Option

• Fastest fulfillment — your queen ships on your selected date without waiting for a specific breed's production window
• Operational efficiency — ideal for commercial beekeepers and large apiaries managing multiple hives who need queens quickly and reliably
• Quality-driven selection — the first queens available are always the most developed and ready, so you get our best stock
• Flexible for your apiary — all our breeds are gentle, productive, and well-suited to Florida and Southeast climates
• Simplifies requeening — no spreadsheets tracking which breed goes where; just order your date and install

Which Breed Might You Receive?

Your First Available queen will be one of the following, depending on which breed is leading production on your selected ship date:

• Italian — the most widely kept queen in the United States. Exceptional year-round brood production, fast spring buildup, gentle temperament. Ideal for honey production and commercial pollination.
• Carniolan — outstanding winter hardiness, explosive spring buildup, and strong natural hygienic tendencies. A top choice for Northern climates and beekeepers who prefer a more resource-efficient colony.
• Hybrid (Italian / Carniolan) — combines the Italian's consistent brood production with the Carniolan's winter resilience and resource efficiency. An adaptable, versatile queen that performs well across a wide range of climates and management styles.

All three breeds have been selected for their productivity, gentleness, and suitability for our customers' operations. Any of them will be an excellent addition to your apiary.

Shipping and Installation

• Ships via UPS Next Day Air on your selected date — choose your date from the variant selector above
• Queens arrive in individual cages with attendant bees and a candy plug for safe, gradual release
• To introduce: make your colony queenless for 24 hours, then place the caged queen between two frames in the upper brood area
• The colony will naturally release the queen through the candy plug over 3–5 days
• Most queens begin laying within 3–5 days of release from the cage
• We contact you if any adjustments to your ship date are necessary due to weather or production conditions

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I request a specific breed with this listing? This listing is specifically for First Available — our breed-specific listings are available separately if you have a strong preference. Most beekeepers are genuinely happy with whichever breed arrives.
  
• Is First Available lower quality than breed-specific? Not at all. The first queens ready to ship are the most developed and inspected queens across our entire production. In many cases, First Available queens are the cream of the crop from a given production cycle.
• What if my queen is lost in transit? Contact us immediately. We stand behind our queens and will work with you to make it right.
• Do you ship to my state? We ship mated queens via UPS Next Day Air to all states that permit live queen bee imports. Contact us if you have questions about your state's regulations.

From Our Hives to Yours — With Care at Every Step

Heritage Bee Farm is a family beekeeping operation in Myakka City, Florida. We raise our queens from breeder selection through grafting, incubation, mating, and final inspection — managing every step ourselves so we can stand behind every queen we ship. When you order from us, you are not buying from a warehouse. You are buying from the beekeeper.

Select your ship date above and get your colony the queen it deserves. We look forward to being part of your apiary.