[Objectives]  To select and breed high quality Apis cerana cerana honeybees in Jiangxi Province. [Methods]  The performance of colonies with either jujube red, or black, queens in Jiangxi Province was compared, and superior queens were selected for breeding. Artificial insemination was used to control the mating between queens and drones, and the birth weight, honey sac weight of foragers and 38 external morphological indicators of each generation of worker bees, were measured and compared. [Results]  Although differences in foraging effort and fertility were not significant, the weight of newly emerged worker bees and the honey sac weights of foragers in jujube red queen colonies were significantly higher than those in black queen colonies. Jujube red queen colonies were therefor selected for breeding. The birth weight and honey sac weight of the offspring of jujube red queens were significantly higher than those of the parent colonies. The length indices of the offspring was also significantly higher, and the color, number of wing hooks and elbow pulse index were significantly different from those of their parents. [Conclusion]  There was no significant difference in honey production between colonies with either black or jujube red queens, but the emergence weight and honey sac weights of workers were significantly higher in F1 colonies of selectively bred jujube red queens. There was, however, no obvious difference in morphological diversity between F1 colonies and parent colonies.