What the heck is going on: Latshaw and Colby are sold out for Breeder queens for next year, 2019. Both produce II queens and supply the large well known queen producers which in turn supply queens to the public. Looks like 2019 is starting off excitingly well for honeybees.
Latshaw queens are $565.00 a piece, minimum order is 4 queens. Sue Colby last year travel Asia and obtained necessary paperwork to obtains queens from Asia returning to the US with genetically diversified queens. I talked with Sue Colby a few weeks ago and demand for her New World Carniolan queens is overwhelming.
One large breeder I know in California, Greg, can supply queens in lots of 1,000 at a time. That is a lot of queens to ship in a single day. Greg obtains his breeders from Latshaw. Greg then graft eggs, and open mates the virgins that sell for a modest price of $23-$28 dollars.
I read an article a few months back that stated 90% of queens sold in the US are originated from only 1/2 dozen or so producers.
I imagine I am old fashioned, my first hive was $35.00 delivered, 10 frame deep Lang. Today that is a down payment and if you want an II breeder queen you need to order 6 months in advance.
Blessings