We have been breeding 100% pure Apis mellifera CARNICA QUEENS intensively for the last 30 years and we are proud of several hundred honey bee colonies, which enable us to have a large quantity of first-class breeding stock . Our breeding technology is based on mimicking the natural reproduction of queen bees. This is why we use natural wax cups. Starters receive no more than 20 young larvae each. Larvae are not older than 12 hours.

With at least 80 % alle ptance each starter has 16 – 18 queen cells which is simillar to swarming. Minimum length of queen cells is between 38 and 41 mm. After the emergence we can still find a lot of unused royall jelly at the top of the queen cell. Following these standards the weight of a young mated queen when it starts laying eggs is at least 220 mg. We use adapted Cloake method. The starter has a fully popullated Langstroth hive body full of young bees and emerging brood. Not a single cell of open brood is ever present. The starter is always heavy on fresh nectar and pollen.

Our breeding material comes from collonies that have passed a two year testing process. After that 50 – 100 bees are taken from the colony and inspected by the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, We receive an analysis of the cubital index and nosema spores. The colony must follow the criteria of 2,4 – 3,0 for cubital index and no nosema. In the second year pin test is also admininstered to all the candidates. The potential breeder must clean at leat as large as possible % of the pinched cells in the period of 12 hours.