Frosty Meadow Queens 2026

Locally raised queen bees from two developing lines — Chatham County Local and Caucasian — bred for gentleness, productivity, and the specific conditions of the North Carolina Piedmont.

Caucasian queens (Apis mellifera caucasica) are uncommon in the United States and almost unavailable in the Southeast. Most domestic Caucasian queen breeders operate in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, or Northeast. Frosty Meadow is one of the few sources of Caucasian queens available for local pickup in North Carolina, with our breeding stock traced back to Dr. Steve Sheppard's lab at Washington State University — the program that reintroduced Caucasian genetics to the United States through a semen importation initiative with the Republic of Georgia.

Chatham County Local

Developed since 2018 from gentle, productive Carniolan-based stock, selected specifically for North Carolina Piedmont conditions. Gentle, overwinters well, strong spring build-up.

Caucasian

Daughters of pure Caucasian queen mothers traced to Washington State University's breeding program, open-mated with selected Chatham County Local drones. Long tongues, heavy propolis, exceptional gentleness.

Marking a newly mated queen bee at Frosty Meadow apiary

Open Mated

Pure daughter queens open-mated in breeding yards containing Caucasian drones. Selected for gentleness and productivity. Availability announced seasonally.

Coming Soon

Our Queen Lines

Chatham County Local

We have 2 lines of queens that come from Carniolian stock acquired in 2018. One line (R63) was an open mated queen out of Sue Cobey's Carniolian project obtained from Dr. Steve Sheppard at Washington State University. The other (G80) came from a graft from an instrumentally inseminated queen that Joe Latshaw donated to Dana Stahlman. Both lines are gentle, productive, and overwinter well.

Caucasian Genetics

This line comes from Dr. Sheppard's lab and are I.I. Caucasian queens. We trade these breeder queens with Clint Brooks at Brooks Mills Farms who returns Caucasian daughters mated with his VP Queens stock. The daughters of these queens are then open mated in our bee yards. We started this line in 2021 — they have overwintered well and are gentle.

About the Caucasian Honey Bee

Apis mellifera caucasica is a subspecies of the Western honey bee native to the high valleys of the Central Caucasus Mountains — the country of Georgia, eastern Turkey, Armenia, and parts of southern Russia. The breed was brought to the United States in the early twentieth century, fell out of commercial favor during the mid-century dominance of Italian bees, and has been quietly restored over the past two decades through work at Washington State University, Ohio State, and a handful of private breeders.

Caucasian bees are recognized for several traits that distinguish them from the more common Italian and Carniolan races:

Exceptional gentleness. Caucasians are among the most docile honey bees kept by beekeepers. They tolerate inspection with minimal defensive behavior.
Long tongues. At up to 7.2 mm, Caucasian proboscises reach deep nectar sources that shorter-tongued races cannot exploit — particularly useful on clovers and deep flowers.
Cool-weather flying. Caucasians forage earlier in the morning, later in the evening, and on cooler or damper days than Italian bees. Useful during the variable spring weather of the Piedmont.
Heavy propolis production. Caucasian colonies produce significantly more propolis than most races. Propolis has antimicrobial properties valued by the bees for hive hygiene and by beekeepers who harvest it. The trait does mean slightly stickier hive inspections.
Frugal winter clusters. Caucasian colonies form tight, efficient winter clusters and use stored honey conservatively. They tend to overwinter well in North Carolina.

Caucasian bees do not typically reach peak population until mid-summer, which makes them less ideal for operations whose honey flow is concentrated in early spring. They are well-suited for keepers in central North Carolina, where the goldenrod and fall nectar flows reward a colony that's still building at that point in the season.

For a more detailed history of the Caucasian bee's revival in the United States, see the article from our friends at Two Rivers Honey Bees.

Read the full story on our blog

Want a longer, inside-the-apiary look at how we actually raise Caucasian queens each spring — the breeder queens, the grafting cycle, the mating yard? Our flagship blog post walks through the entire process.

🐝 How We Raise Caucasian Queens in Chatham County →

Availability & How to Buy

We do not typically sell standalone queens for pickup; our queens are generally placed into 5-frame nucleus colonies (see our Nucs page for details). Standalone queens may be available in limited numbers depending on the season — if you are a local beekeeper specifically looking for a Caucasian or Chatham County Local queen for requeening, please email Daniel to discuss.

We are located in Pittsboro, NC, and serve beekeepers throughout Chatham, Orange, Durham, Wake, Alamance, Lee, Moore, and Randolph counties as well as neighboring areas of the Triangle and Triad. Pickup only — we do not ship bees.