About our bees

Rainy Day Bees runs a group of self sufficient neighborhood apiaries located in the greater Seattle area.  As such, we work to produce the majority of our own queens and bees throughout the year. We raise bees from queens that are gentle, productive and overwinter successfully in our climate. Queens are raised throughout the spring and summer, as soon as the weather is warm enough for successful mating. Nucleus hives are produced in July and August for overwintering.

Mated queens, queen cells and nucleus hives may be available for purchase, depending on the time of year and weather.  Email peter@rainydaybees.com to inquire about availability.

In addition, we offer nucleus hives from Eric, Ian, and Randy Oliver, of Golden West Apiaries and scientificbeekeeping.com. The Olivers keep their bees in the foothills of northern California. While it's not Washington, the bees experience the full range of weather, and adapt well to our area. We've used the Olivers' nucs ourselves for many years, and they have done a terrific job with both survival and honey production in our cold, wet, unpredictable Puget Sound climate.