Three-Pound Package Bees with Mated Queen

Hybrid Italian Queens

Our Virginia-raised Italian queens are bred with Carniolans, which are prolific layers. The queens are selected based on honey productions, laying patterns, and gentleness. 

There are few things as critical to the success of your hive than the queen, so selecting the best is essential for you, and a good business practice for us. 

Rock Hill Honey Bee Farms is a small micro-breeder, using small starter and finishing hives, with a hive base that expands and contract, depending on the time of year.
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These colonies come from the Orange Groves in Florida about March, then proceed to apple pollination, blueberries, cranberries, and pumpkins. Italian beehives see rapid buildup in the spring and produce large amounts of honey. You can have your hive for just $350. Purchase of the colonies can be made in June of each year with a requirement that an order be placed by May 15.

One-Story Italian Beehive

Customers can order their three-pound packages of bees, with a mated queen, and pick them up every week in March and April. Prior customers have priority on earlier shipments.
Turn to the professionals at Rock Hill Honey Bee Farms in Stafford, Virginia, for the finest quality Italian queens and nucleus beehives, and everything else you need to raise your own bees. You’ll find the best with us, ensuring your success as a hobbyist or as a business.

High-Quality Italian Queens & Nucleus Beehives

Breeder queens and grafting stock originate from VP Queens in Frederick, Maryland, and are artificially inseminated. VP Allegro queens are framed on the Italian phenotype, and build quickly in the spring and can be split sooner. They rear a strong brood into the fall with high VSH expression.


VP Spartan queens are framed on the Carniolan phenotype, and build up more slowly while producing enormous nests and workers in time for the honey flow. They slow down if the nectar or pollen availability drops, and make a conservative fall brood with high VSH expression. Clipped or marked Italian queens are just $45

Nucleus Hives

We sell nucleus hives (Five frame deeps) every other year. Our nucleus hives include Italian bees, a laying queen, five framed or more of bees on drawn comb in deep nuclei. You will be called to pick up your order between April 15 and June 15, every year. We undergo a full hive inspection by the Virginia Department of Agriculture, ensuring we don’t spread disease. Properly executed and numbered Certificates of Apiary Inspection can be verified by the Commonwealth Apiarists office. These, and our three-pound packages, are available for pickup in season, or ship the same day they are boxed to ensure freshness and survivability.