Looking for a mated queen

[chimplike]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any mated queens for sale/going spare? I know there's lots of online shops to get one from but choosing who really is selling the bestest / localist / nativist / super duperist / etc etc mated queen is beyond my experience to figure out so I thought i'd ask on here instead.

Not wishing to offend but i'd like to buy a Scottish queen (we believe in low miles for food, clothes etc for various reasons so that feels more congruent with our values) as far as possible.

Cheers.

[Emma]

Are you in Fife? (Or Aberdeen, at a pinch? - I moved down from there a couple of years ago, with my local Aberdeenshire bees, and I'll be there next week, briefly.) Can't say my queens are the best (I just don't have the experience to even start judging), but they're blackish, usually lovely temperament, and seem to effortlessly survive every winter (so far), & mate well every summer, so I've got a surplus again just now.
This summer I've also rediscovered that if I keep the colonies big during a flow they produce a decent surplus of honey, which with OSR and wild comb is ...er... interesting!
If you're into low bee miles it'd be great to be in touch - I get eco-guilt when I feed my bees syrup that's been trekked across Europe, & have opted out of using foundation for the last couple of seasons or so partly because of those kinds of reasons.

[chimplike]

Great! Thanks for replying Emma. PM sent :)