For those who have a bit of experience with requeening and making splits, Elzner Farms queen® cells are a great option for your hives. This listing is for an Elzner Farms® raised queen cell using our breeder queen genetics. Pickup is at our farm from 10am-noon on the date you select, with zero exceptions, as the queens are grafted to emerge on a specific day so late pickups are not allowed, as the queens may begin to emerge. Our farm address is 1080 Jennings Rd. Jacksonville, TX 75766.

***Please note, we have a 5 CELL MINIMUM ORDER. Any order placed for less than 5 cells will be cancelled.*** Thank you for understanding. If you are needing less than 5 cells we suggest you coordinate a group order with your local bee club in order to meet the minimum.

A queen cell is a developing virgin queen that is in her cell and will need to mate after she emerges. These cells need to be placed into a hive immediately, and the queens typically emerge withing 24 hours (timing can vary a bit depending on the weather temperature). We do not recommend you continually checking the hive once the cells have been placed, as this can irritate the bees and actually cause them to kill the virgin queen before she is able to go out and mate. It is usually best to place the cell into your queenless nuc/hive and then go back in 4 weeks to check for a laying queen. If you do not see eggs in 4 weeks, wait one more week and check again. Please note that not all queens make it back from their mating flight, as there are many factors that are part of the mating cycle so you may want to factor this into your apiary planning.

Queen cells are a great way to requeen or make splits. Cells are raised to order and all sales are final. When picking up your queen cells we suggest you bring a small cooler with hot water bottles/warm rice pack/etc to keep the cells warm, as they can die if warm temps are not maintained. Cells are raised best when kept about 93 degrees. Cells must be kept upright and should be handled gently as you do not want to damage the developing queens wings, etc in transport or when you install the cell.