Queen Bee 2025

Description

BONUS: Save 25% on our online course bundle using discount code 2025BEES. That’s $75 of savings!

2025 Queen Pickup Options:

• At the package pickup in Provo, UT, date TBA, but it will be the 1st or 2nd Saturday in April, 9-Noon.
• Queen Bank in Mapleton, UT. Tested California queens in California mini cages. Available in April. While supplies last.
• Queen castle in Mapleton, UT. Queens from The Feral Bee Project Available starting in late May/early June.

Please call Stan at 801-735-7227 to arrange pickup outside of these dates. He can be hard to catch on the phone, so keep trying if he doesn’t answer at first. It’s hard to answer the phone in a bee suit.

We do NOT guarantee individual queens. Introducing a queen to an established colony is difficult and bees do not always accept her. We can work with you, so call if you are having trouble.

California Mini Cage VS Push-In Cage

When you call to arrange pickup, Stan might ask you if you want to pick up the queen in a California mini cage, or to bring a frame of drawn comb and use a push-in cage. Here’s what to expect with each.

California Mini Cage

Advantage: This is the easiest way to pick up a queen. She is in a small cage that is easy to pick up and put in your pocket.

Disadvantages: When we put a queen in a California mini cage, the queen stops laying eggs for a time. When she stops laying eggs, her Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP) decreases. When she does not smell good (with QMP), the bees are less likely to accept her and might ball and kill her.

Occasionally when a queen stops laying eggs, it takes her a while to start laying eggs again.

Push-In Cage

Advantages: With a push-in cage, the queen is on comb, and will continue to lay eggs and releasing QMP. The more pheromones she has, the better she smells and she is more likely to be accepted by the bees. 

Disadvantages: It is harder to use a push-in cage.

If you choose a push-in cage, please bring your own frame of drawn comb with a little bit of honey somewhere on the frame. We will move the queen and push-in cage onto your frame to transport her. Then you will take the frame to your apiary, and place it into the colony to introduce the queen.

If you do not have a frame with drawn comb, choose the California mini cage option.