In Need Of A Queen?

[dusti...@gmail.com]

Opened the hive of a swarm I caught in the spring and they went wild with the queen cells! A couple of them hatched while I was inspecting and I caged them. Anyone need a queen? Free to a good home! I'm in Alameda. Email is the best way to get my attention. Dusti...@gmail.com

[Jerry Przybylski]

Often best if the colony has several to choose between. 

Wally Shaw says the bees “fix” the fights between queens by impeding the queen they want to be the looser. 

They have their own reasons. 

Perhaps they are the better judges 

-- Siri apologizes 4 autocomplete errors...

On Jul 14, 2026, at 4:57 PM, dusti...@gmail.com <dusti...@gmail.com> wrote:

Opened the hive of a swarm I caught in the spring and they went wild with the queen cells! A couple of them hatched while I was inspecting and I caged them. Anyone need a queen? Free to a good home! I'm in Alameda. Email is the best way to get my attention. Dusti...@gmail.com

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[dusti...@gmail.com]

I don't know who Wally is. Did he need a queen? 

[Jerry Przybylski]

Wally Shaw wrote several very useful booklets you can find on the Welsh Beekeeper association website 

Very practical stuff 

-- Siri apologizes 4 autocomplete errors...

On Jul 14, 2026, at 5:52 PM, dusti...@gmail.com <dusti...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't know who Wally is. Did he need a queen? 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/the-alameda-county-beekeepers-association/705db9e8-1fbd-49dd-b9ec-cb44abd85481n%40googlegroups.com.

[dusti...@gmail.com]

So he doesn't need a queen? I'm not understanding why you are bringing him up if he doesn't need one. I have one left if he does!

[Leslie Louie]

Dustin - Wally Shaw has written books about swarm prevention and when to introduce queens to hives. Jerry was just putting in an educational plug for Wally's information. He's not local and doesn't need a queen!

Leslie

(she/her)

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[dusti...@gmail.com]

Oh! He should start a thread about that so the info doesn't get lost in a random post about queens up for grabs! LOL! 

I was planning on deleting my post after the queens were gone so the message board stays clear of expired offers, but now that would erase his plug too. 

[Gerald Przybylski]

Recounting a bit of general advice from Wally Shaw. 
His point of view is that bee colonies are smarter than beekeepers when it comes to judging how they should manage succession. 

To take away all but one queen allows them no choice but to try to win with the hand they're dealt.   No other cards to play with.
If they had their own choice between multiple queens they would certainly disfavor any queen that 
was defective from the get-go or was in some way below par.  like discarding bad cards in hope the new cards help the hand. 

His point is that all (virgin) queens are not the same or interchangeable. 
We mere humans can't tell which virgin queens are better and which ones are worse for the colony.  We can't evaluate their pheromones; they can.
A queen breeder would produce a number of queens (like a colony would produce a number of supersedure cells) 
and the queen breeder would put one queen cell in each mating nuc.  
The queen breeder would be pleased with 80 or 90% mating success.  Some of those mating nucs end up queenless or with failed queens. 
Isn't that a clue to us that not all those queens were quality stock? (either grafted cells or supersedure cells) 


The queen is the raw material.  The ultimate heart of the colony is the Mated queen. 
The more drones she mates with, the more diverse the drones, the better because each is responsible for a Patraline in the colony. 
(conventional wisdom of 10 to 20 drones is imo  a lower limit) 
It turns out that certain patralines sniff out the Varroa (or in general the otherwise) infected pupa cells and uncap them.
Different patralines in the colony either tear out the pupa (VSH trait or disposition of other fatal pathogens like AFB),  or recap the pupa after the foundress mite leaves. 
Other patrilines influence environmental control.   That's the tip of the iceberg. 

Another thing...  Large scale queen breeders pull queens out of mating nucs as soon as they see eggs. 
It takes several weeks of more-or-less continuous egg laying to mature queen ovaries, and there is a Window for ovary development.  
Too big an interruption in laying can result in stunted development of the ovaries.
Poorly developed ovaries make for an inferior queen, and low quality colony. 
So a reasonable to not have high expectations for a mailorder queen compared to one naturally produced and mated in the apiary.
We let the process evolve naturally.  

We should be glad  we   Don't   live in an area with africanized bees, because those beekeepers have to depend entirely on mailorder queens. 
(the queens they would raise from their italian mothers would mate with africanized drones, with the result those colonies would 100% express africanized traits
- reliable info on mating from Eric Mussen) 

Each of us is master of our own colonies.
We each have to figure out when we should interfere and how,  as well as when we should leave things alone.  
We also have to judge when ideas we encounter are useful,  when they're useful for someone else, or when they're entirely wrong. 
Plus we all believe a lot of things that aren't true (not limited to beekeeping either). 
The above is queen stuff is what I've picked up or noticed since taking up beekeeping in 2011.  I'm comfortable with it. 
jerry

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[Gerald Przybylski]

Leslie, you're right. I should have changed the subject line

[dusti...@gmail.com]

Jerry... are you upset that I posted about queens to share with the community? 

[Sung Lee]

No worries.

Jerry  never get upset.

He is sharing wealth of knowledge and information with all our members. We are so lucky to have him.

Sung

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[real...@aol.com]

Thank you , in summary everyone need a Queen!

I love to have 1/4 of Jerry’s knowledge and 1/10 his patience .

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

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[Gerald Przybylski]

there's no reason for me to be upset with the management choices anyone makes, whether I agree or not. 
emails often omit factors that would produce a better response from me.  

I assume at least a partial information vacuum at all times.  
I also assume this list has an audience that ranges from expert to newbie.  
My replies lean toward giving  the newbie  a bit of perspective verging on too much information. 

Cheers, 

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[Merry Luskin]

If it's better to leave all the queens for the colony to choose one, doesn't that eliminate all the others? Then what is the best way to share queens so we maintain localized genetics?

[Gerald Przybylski]

If a colony produces one or two or three, or even four queens when superseding, maybe it's best to just leave them alone.

If a superseding colony produce a dozen queens,  take some but leave three to six about the same age. 
That's my opinion. 

When a colony is superseding it's quite rare for them to also swarm, but not unheard of. 

Swarming depends on having the swarm organizer bees in the population. (they're part of the field bee force)

Discovering a colony that is in the process of swarming is an opportunity to share queen cells, as well as making Splits. 

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[Bees & Beeks]

Even when I share my Queens I leave the hive 2-3 Queens to choose from.  Usually I just take out easily removable capped Queen cells.  I find my success rate with installing capped Queen much higher than that of Virgin Queens.

Mimi 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 15, 2026, at 4:37 PM, 'Merry Luskin' via The Alameda County Beekeepers Association <the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

If it's better to leave all the queens for the colony to choose one, doesn't that eliminate all the others? Then what is the best way to share queens so we maintain localized genetics?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/the-alameda-county-beekeepers-association/9c449719-6634-4c83-a1f5-7404d50130a4n%40googlegroups.com.

[Danny Williamson]

I find with my many years of experience that when the bees are making supersedre queen cells I will remove all the small runt queen cells and leave 2-3 of the biggest and longest queen cells for a guaranteed productive queen and it's worked for me quite well. Now if they are swarm cells and I want to do a split I leave 2-3 of the biggest and longest queen cells that are on that frame and remove the smaller cells and runt cells then I put that frame in a nuc with 2 other frames of brood, honey, pollen nurse bees and drones with the 2 last frames being empty. I've had a very high success rate doing this when I use to keep alot of beehives. 

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[Jennifer Lanett]

Is the Queen still available? Is she Italian?

Jennifer