IOANNINA Greek Bred Queen Bees

The family who produce the queen bees, from left
Jim ,Panagiotis Skarleas,Labrini Skarlea (child, Margarita-Maria Skarlea) John , Margarita , Maria Iskou,Zacharias

The city of Ioannina (pronounced yo-an-inaa) population 100,000 at 500m altitude, built on the bank of Lake Pamvotis, with the Pindos mountains in the background.

The bee centre is located close to the village of Katsikas 8km from the city of Ioannina




Along with queen bees the centre also produces royal jelly, honey, pollen, and propolis.







Artificial insemination equipment in the bee lab which is also used for monitoring bee health.

Inside the Bee House with 317 permanently accommodated hives, for grafting, cell raising & finishing, incubation, drone, and royal jelly production.






The queens are freely mated from some 2000 mini nucs placed in fields surrounding the main bee house.



Strong 5 frame mini nuclei with polythene between frames and lid.

Cages of different races are organized and recorded before placed in boxes.

Here is a batch of the smaller traveling boxes (up to 50 queens)the larger taking 100 queen bees. The bees stay quieter in the darkness of the box which has damp sponge placed inside for humidity.

Traveling boxes are placed in shaded ventilated bags that are sent in the cool of the evening to Athens airport.

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EST   1991- 2021