Queen Breeding Hive

The Apimaye queen breeding hive is an insulated mating hive split into four compartments, so one box holds four small colonies, each raising or mating its own queen. It comes with 16 queen frames, four division boards, four feeders and four entrance closures. Flight boards on two sides of the body give every colony a separate entrance, and colour sockets on each board help bees find their own door.

Understand the frames before you order spares. Each queen frame is half the size of a normal frame, and a half-frame joiner links two of them into a standard-size frame. Spare half-frames and joiners are sold separately here. A queen status indicator shows whether a queen is present without taking off the top cover, and the half-size division and uniting board lets two neighbouring colonies get used to each other before you combine them.

A queen breeding hive suits beekeepers who mate several queens each season. Grafting tools and cell cups are in our queen raising supplies. If you only need one or two mating colonies, a timber nuc box or the Apimaye 7-frame hive, which divides into a pair of 3-frame nucs, may be all you need.