Extra Virgin Queen

[Ariana Wood]

I have an extra virgin queen.  If, after reading this email, you are interested in getting her from me (or if you'd like to share advice about the situation - I am a first year beekeeper), email me or call 360-915-4510.  I live in Rainier.  Here's the story.....

One of my hives was in the process of making new queens after it swarmed last week.  I checked on it yesterday and saw lots of capped queen cells, so decided to cull all but the few best ones.  

Apparently, some of the queens were very close to emerging because when I went to clean up after inspecting the hive, gathering the cells from the ground that I had culled, I saw queens walking around on the ground!  

I do not have enough equipment or resources to start a proper nuc with this queen.  She does look a little small to me too; I can't guarantee that she is fully developed given the odd way that she emerged.  With that said, she appears functional and healthy so far.

She is currently in a nuc box with a frame from my existing hive.  She has been in there since last night, and I know under normal circumstances, she'd be needing to go on mating flights at some point in the coming days.  I'm not even sure how one would transport her or introduce her to a queenless hive at this point (or start your own nuc), but I thought I'd throw it out to the community. I'd like her to have a good home if she is, in fact, viable.

Thanks!

[Ariana Wood]

I have someone who can take her.  Feel free to share any other thoughts, but she no longer needs a new home.  Thanks!

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Olympia Beekeepers Association Discussion Group
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[S. Monson]

Happy Sunday. One of my hives needs a new queen.  Does anybody have a queen for sale?  

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[Vivian Johnson]

Steve,

I assume that if there is an available queen from the club apiary, someone from the club will respond.  I went to the website and it isn’t clear who you should contact, perhaps Bryan Henn at vicepr...@olympiabeekeepers.org

If the club doesn’t have one or doesn’t respond promptly, I would recommend Jordan, here is a message he posted in May of this year:

Hey everyone!

I wanted to let you all know that I expect to have queens available starting the second week of June. They will be marked, vetted, and priced at $60 each. Please email or text me if you’re interested in reserving some.

If there’s enough interest, I’m also open to discussing wholesale pricing for orders of a dozen or more. There may also be an opportunity to organize a group order.

Additionally, if anyone is interested in making splits using queen cells rather than mated queens, that can be a very effective and economical option. I expect queen cells to be around $12 each. Timing is important with cells, so we would need to coordinate closely, but I’d be happy to discuss it with anyone interested.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

206-227-2914
jordan...@gmail.com

Vivian 

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From: S. Monson <neveri...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 5, 2026 1:58 PM
To: oba-dis...@olympiabeekeepers.org <oba-dis...@olympiabeekeepers.org>
Subject: Re: [OBA Discussions] Extra Virgin Queen

 

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[Charlie Garrott]

Are there queen cells? Maybe the hive is making a queen. 

Charlie 

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[S. Monson]

There are a couple queen cells but there was some when the Nuc arrived. I should’ve done better at documenting how many there were in the beginning. Lessons learned. The queen cells have clean openings. There are no new larva. We captured a swarm and queen nearby a few days ago. It is not the queen from that particular hive. The original queen from that hive is no longer present that we could find. She had a green dad on her and was easy to spot.  

So now what we have is a queenless hive with some swarm cells, both old and new.  And a couple queen cells in the middle of frame. All open. No new brood. 

Also, there are some spotty capped drone cells. Not sure if I had an old queen that was running low on fertilized eggs, or if I have working bees that are now laying larva.  

Given these facts, we were thinking our best course of action would be to try to introduce a new fertilized queen, but we are open to suggestions because we are new to this.

Thanks for the help. 

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[Charlie Garrott]

Its your call!

Charlie Garrott

360-280-5609

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