queen included in commercial hive?

[iahawk]

When one buys a commercial bumblebee hive, is the queen included? Or just workers?
Thanks.

[Oldtimer]

You have to specify you want a queen.

Depends on the breeder and their own methods. But some of them will remove the queen from a nest & sell the nest queenless, and use the queen to start a new nest.

Another thing also though, commercial nests seem to slowly go downhill from the time they are purchased, and also the queens in them often don't look very healthy. Whereas my own wild collected nests will thrive and continue to grow.

[iahawk]

Thanks, oldtimer. I think we'll check with the breeders and see what the price differences are with or without queen. Since we only need them for a specific time period to pollinate a specific plant, it may not be worth the extra if a queen costs more. Looks more like the timing of the purchase for us is more important.