Kenny said;
 I am interested in producing queens next May or June is there an
optimum outside temperature for Queen bees to be bred.

Tim gave an excellent answer covering all bases so I almost passed on
replying but  will add Missouri information as Kenny is in south Missouri.

We have little trouble raising queens in May or June but major problems in
early April due to cold & rainy weather and lack of mature drones.

All our splitting is done by May so  we have little need  for  queens in May
& June  and  demand by other beekeepers is low .

On the positive side we have raised and mated queens  as early as the first
week of April in rare years but when weather conditions are bad for getting
queens mated (rainy & cold) the  queens  you get many times are not worth
installing in hives (voice of experience).

A couple of my friends which got queens from the southeast last spring were
disappointed in the queens. The queen breeders said the problem was the cold
and rainy weather during mating which makes sense to me. Although another
batch of queens were shipped by the  queen breeder the timing was off for
the beekeeper and a poor honey crop (and low hive numbers) was the result.

Although the general rule is;
"new queens make money  instead of cost money" the killing of one or two
year old queens with good patterns and the replacing with inferior queens
can (and many times has) cost money in lost honey production.

Bob's advice:

Stick to your plan and  attempt queen rearing in late May to early June and
forget April until you get  queen rearing experience.

Start with twice as many cells as you think will need. Be selective with the
final product.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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