Virgin Queen

Marking is available for Virgin queens at no charge but must be specified in comments during checkout process or contact us by phone

We do not pre-sale queens. If they are in stock on the website, then we have them on hand and they will be shipped within the week

Virgin queens should start shipping around Mid March

We do not ship queens to Alaska or Hawaii

We do not currently ship queen cells. These are only available for pickup at this time

Queens are also available for pickup. Choose pickup during the checkout process and you will be contacted after purchase to arrange a pickup date and time

Queens will be shipped in JZBZ queen cages

Queens are shipped without the purchase of any added insurance and are shipped under the sole responsibility of the purchaser. Replacement is at the discretion of Chilton Bee Company

All queen ship dates are tentative and are weather dependent

Open and inspect queens upon delivery or pickup. Contact us immediately concerning any issues. Queens must be placed into a hive as soon as possible. Please call us if you have any questions about introducing a queen into a hive

First queens normally available in Mid April. First cells and virgins normally available in Mid March

Timing of when nucs and queens are ready for purchase is heavily dependent on the weather, especially in the Spring. We will make every attempt to meet expected dates but offer no guarantees.  We will give as much notice as possible on expected delivery or pickup dates

To introduce a virgin: Using eggs and young larvae in a split can reduce queen acceptance. It is better to use capped brood. Install the queen cage between brood frames but leave the cap over the candy plug. Come back after 5 days and remove any queen cells created by the bees and then replace the queen cage with the cap removed. Do not open the hive for at least 2 weeks. This could cause bees to kill the queen. After 2 weeks you should see eggs and larvae. If not, close up hive and check again a week later. If you still don't see any sign of a laying queen than recombine split into another hive