F1 Buckfast Queen 2025 – The Perfect Queen for Your Hive 🐝
Discover the heritage of F1 Buckfast Queens, the result of Brother Adam's pioneering work. This Benedictine monk travelled the world, breeding bees to create the "perfect bee" known for its productivity, gentle temperament, and resilience.
Available for 2025
- 🗓️ Dispatch Window: Late March 2025 – September 2025.
- 🚚 Delivery Options: 7 days a week via Royal Mail Special Delivery® (excluding bank holidays).
- 📦 Real-Time Stock Control: Select your dispatch date above (note: this is the day we ship your order, not the delivery date).
Your Order Includes
- 🐝 A marked (Blue for 2025), open-mated, unclipped, F1 Buckfast Queen, accompanied by 4–6 attendant bees in a slow-release candy introduction cage (Nicot, Lyson, JzBz or equivalent).
- 📄 A full-colour, double-sided instruction guide covering multiple introduction methods and scenarios. View full guidelines here.
- 📦 A ventilated “LIVE BEES” jiffy bag or larger secure box (depending on order size).
Beginner Alert! 🚨 Read This First
You CANNOT start a bee colony with just a queen! A queen accompanied by a few attendants cannot establish a colony. To build a healthy hive, you’ll need a Nuc of bees, which includes a minimum of 10,000 bees. Learn more here.
Why Choose BS Honey Bees Ltd?
We are a small, independent UK business with over a decade of expertise in breeding and selling live bees. In 2011, we revolutionised the online sale of live bees and queens, providing an easy, reliable, and convenient way to buy. With our bespoke system, you can select your desired dispatch date and enjoy peace of mind knowing you're purchasing from the UK’s No.1 Queen Bee Supplier.
By supporting BS Honey Bees Ltd, you’re supporting the UK economy and a business dedicated to high-quality service and customer satisfaction.
⭐ Don’t just take our word for it – check our Trustpilot reviews -
Our Breeding Standards
Our F1 Buckfast Queens come from leading European breeders using pedigree lines, including Dr. Peter Stöfen, Ivan Bjorholm Nielsen, Keld Brandstrup, Tenuta Ritiro, and Lutz Eggert. These premium genetics ensure queens with exceptional productivity and temperament.
Important Notes
🐝 Acceptance Is Not Guaranteed: A queen may be rejected by your colony even when our instructions are followed. This is beyond our control, and we cannot offer replacements or refunds in such cases.
❗ Cancellations: Any cancelled queen orders incur a £5 restocking/admin fee per queen. This helps us manage these living creatures responsibly and offsets admin and processing fees.
About the Buckfast Bee
The Buckfast bee is a cross of many species of bees into a stable race developed by "Brother Adam", (born Karl Kehrle on 3 August 1898 in Germany), who was in charge of beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey, Devon.
In the early 20th century bee populations were being decimated by Isle of Wight disease. This condition, later called "acarine" disease, after the acarine parasitic mite that invaded the bees' tracheal tubes and shortened their lives, was killing off thousands of colonies in the British Isles in the early part of the 20th century.
In 1916, Brother Adam discovered a feral colony which was a hybrid between A.m. ligurica (North Italian) and A.m. mellifera (English). Brother Adam collected the bees and from this began to develop what would come to be known as the Buckfast bee.
The Buckfast bee is popular among beekeepers and is available from bee breeders in Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, and more. Most of the Buckfast bee's qualities are very favourable. They are extremely gentle and highly productive. Brother Adam, in his book, Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey writes that in 1920 they obtained "an average of no less than 192 lbs surplus per colony and individual yields exceeding 3 cwt [approx. 336 lbs]." In the 1986 BBC-affiliated documentary, The Monk and the Honey Bee, more than 400 pounds of honey are reported to have been produced by a single Buckfast colony. According to Brother Adam, "The average annual honey yield over the last thirty years has been 30 kg (66 lb.) per colony. Thus we have a favourable balance compared with the average production in America or in Europe.
Order your F1 Buckfast Queen today and experience the exceptional quality that has made us the UK’s leading supplier of live bees and queens! 🐝
