2026 Queens
For 2026, we will be offering both mated and virgin queens again.
We will NOT be taking orders for virgin and mated queens until March most likely.
We are hoping that this will help everyone reserving queens have time to figure out the state of their colonies in the spring before placing orders. Our virgin queens will be available for shipping/pickup starting in mid May compared to our mated queens that you will have to wait till June for. If you have a colony you would like to split in spring, we suggest you use a virgin queen. The mated queens are good for making splits after the spring honey flow, but we like using our virgin queens all season the best. You can read more about using virgin queens in our article for American Bee Journal “Virgin Queens Take The Throne Best”.
Back in 2021 we decided to only sell mated queens that have been mated on a 21+ day schedule and to sell mated queens only upon advanced request. That means if you want a mated queen, then you must give us a three week lead time. If we have extra mated queens available, we will gladly bump you up the list.
We are doing this for two reasons:
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We want to focus our mating energy on developing and evaluating our stock. To analyze our stock, we need to make a minimum of 10 nucs from each potential breeder queen that is sidelined for observation. In order to select for traits like varroa resistance, resource consumption, productivity and pattern. Each nuc needs to be mite tested multiple times and if it passes, then tested via the uncapping process and analyzed in order to full see the extent of the VSH behavior. We work hard for you to select the best traits possible in our queen lines. If you want to learn more about VSH testing, please check out Harbo’s explanation of the process Here
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Virgin queens are so much better! The best queens are the ones that stay where they are mated. You can’t get that kind of quality by doing a walkway split or using mated queens. Mated queens are great if you just want ALL the genetics from the supplier’s yard, but the drawback is that they cost more, there is a chance of damaging her during the process of caging/transport/introduction and colonies do not receive a brood break. This is why we are offering discounts on our virgin queens!
Mated Queen Introductions
For those who may not know what a push in cage is, it is used for queen introduction and allows the queen to lay during the introduction process.
This increases the queens pheromones which generates a higher level of acceptance. We use these for the queens we produce and for breeder queens that can cost upwards of $1,200 apiece.