New Zealand Italian Breeder Queens

Betta Bees Research Ltd is a private company located in Dunedin, New Zealand. Our core function is to maintain a closed population breeding programme for Italian type bees. Breeder queens from our genetic evaluation program are distributed to our shareholders and sold to other beekeepers throughout New Zealand.

We also undertake applied research projects for the benefit of the wider beekeeping industry in New Zealand.
 
We welcome enquiries from both New Zealand and International customers. 
 

Inseminated Breeder Queens

Our breeder queens are inseminated using pooled homogenised semen from the top performing colonies from our evaluation program.

Breeder queens are produced in November of each year for the evaluation programme with extra queens being produced for delivery to shareholders and customers around the New Year.  We also produce another run in February for  overwintering evaluations.  These are distributed in the spring to shareholders and other beekeepers.

Read more: Inseminated Breeder Queens

Production Queens

Betta Bees Research Limited does not produce open mated production queens or queen cells.

The sale of production queens is undertaken by individuals or companies associated with Betta Bees Research Limited.

Read more: Production Queens

Our Shareholders

When Betta Bees was formed in 2004 there were 15 shareholder beekeepers, all resident south of the Waitaki River.  Today the company has expanded to 23 shareholders from all parts of the country.

 

Read more: Our Shareholders