A Potomac River Queen is high royalty -- never caged, banked or shipped.  That means, when you take delivery, not only is she mated, she's still actively laying.
 
If you confine a mated queen to a shipping cage for even "a few hours, and certainly overnight, [it] affects a queen's egg laying, total body weight and pheromone production." (Connor, Increase Essentials, 2d ed. 2014, p.139) She is no longer a laying queen, and "[t]o the bees, a queen that is not laying eggs is no substitute for an actively laying queen." (Id.) An interrupted queen can be accepted by a new colony and resume egg laying, of course, but it takes proper care and recovery time -- and maybe you're ready for an alternative. 
 
A Potomac River Queen comes with “the [deep] frame of brood she is on, bees and all, together with another frame from the same hive,” inspired by the simple queen introduction method most favored by G.M. Doolittle, the father of modern commercial queen rearing. (Scientific Queen-Rearing, 3d ed. 1901, p.76).
 
She essentially comes as a two-frame nucleus colony, in a Wellington County (Ontario) corrugated plastic nuc box, with top and bottom frame guides to protect her.
 
An overwintered queen was reared during summer of the prior year.  
 
DELIVERY DATES ARE WEATHER DEPENDENT.  Weather permitting, we expect the first overwintered queens to be available beginning in April, on a first-come-first-served basis. Order now to reserve your place in line.