Buying NUCs

[Brian Bush]

I have never bought a NUC of bees before but having sufferred a nasty loss of 4 hives due to storms, (a tree fell on them, I was left with no bees and a lot of firewood!). My personal time may well be limited this year, I am creeping up the NHS waiting lists, so I want easily established hives.
I have been looking at all the usual suppliers and others I have never heard of.
I intend to use the hives purely as honey gathering colonies away from my main apiaries.
I would like to canvas your views on the following posers
Buckfasts?
Over wintered NUC or Spring NUC?
Good suppliers?
Any other advice?
Normally I would split existing hives and raise or buy in queens. This year i am going to be short of colonies to rob for brood and bees and my colleague who normally helps has reduced her hives from 12 to 4.

 

[Wilco]

Overwintered will probably be what you're after and you may even be able to split that if needed later on.

Various Buckfast suppliers, very impressed with one we got from BS Honeybees last year for a university beekeeping project, they've been docile, productive and hardly needed any feed (disturbingly so). That's n of 1 though.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’ll second the overwintered nuc
I have never had a bad queen from BS. I have from others.

 

[Roger.Wilco]

Overwintered will probably be what you're after

It was definitely what I was looking for; as unfortunately, I expect a winter loss this year. Splitting although an option, would delay the buildup by many weeks; so was going to bite the bullet and get an overwintered NUC to make the most of spring buildup. But when I went looking (and asking) around a month ago all the local beefarms and association members who offer overwintered NUCs were already fully subscribed. So as the only option, I paid a deposit for a mid-year NUC ("belts & braces - just-in-case") and will swallow the loss of the deposit if I have to split instead.

So if you can find & purchase an overwintered NUC in your area at this time - I suggest also purchasing a lottery ticket as the bee gods have been good to you.

I got two beautiful queens from BS mid-year last year. The first one had only started to lay and was killed within a week of introduction. Though that colony went on to successfully re-queen mid-year. The other was initially accepted and laid a beautiful pattern for a few months before also being replaced. Re-queening of that colony was a nightmare with eggs finally being seen Oct-Nov. It is the later colony I expect to fail this winter.

 

[Newbeeneil]

It was definitely what I was looking for; as unfortunately, I expect a winter loss this year. Splitting although an option, would delay the buildup by many weeks; so was going to bite the bullet and get an overwintered NUC to make the most of spring buildup. But when I went looking (and asking) around a month ago all the local beefarms and association members who offer overwintered NUCs were already fully subscribed. So as the only option, I paid a deposit for a mid-year NUC ("belts & braces - just-in-case") and will swallow the loss of the deposit if I have to split instead.

So if you can find & purchase an overwintered NUC in your area at this time - I suggest also purchasing a lottery ticket as the bee gods have been good to you.

I got two beautiful queens from BS mid-year last year. The first one had only started to lay and was killed within a week of introduction. Though that colony went on to successfully re-queen mid-year. The other was initially accepted and laid a beautiful pattern for a few months before also being replaced. Re-queening of that colony was a nightmare with eggs finally being seen Oct-Nov. It is the later colony I expect to fail this winter.

If you want an overwintered nuc I would suggest going to your local bee auction, last year the West Sussex auction had about 8 nucs and a couple of full hives. The prices for the nucs were £200ish the full colonies closer £300.
These prices were low because of the high number available. Normally only about 5 available.

 

[Penninetrader]

It was definitely what I was looking for; as unfortunately, I expect a winter loss this year. Splitting although an option, would delay the buildup by many weeks; so was going to bite the bullet and get an overwintered NUC to make the most of spring buildup. But when I went looking (and asking) around a month ago all the local beefarms and association members who offer overwintered NUCs were already fully subscribed. So as the only option, I paid a deposit for a mid-year NUC ("belts & braces - just-in-case") and will swallow the loss of the deposit if I have to split instead.

So if you can find & purchase an overwintered NUC in your area at this time - I suggest also purchasing a lottery ticket as the bee gods have been good to you.

I got two beautiful queens from BS mid-year last year. The first one had only started to lay and was killed within a week of introduction. Though that colony went on to successfully re-queen mid-year. The other was initially accepted and laid a beautiful pattern for a few months before also being replaced. Re-queening of that colony was a nightmare with eggs finally being seen Oct-Nov. It is the later colony I expect to fail this winter.

Those 2 colonies that effectively used your introduced queens to produce their own, their queens I presume had succumbed to something, what type of queen were they ? From.my.own experience of trying a quick fix, it did not work.

 

[Moobee]

I have never bought a NUC of bees before but having sufferred a nasty loss of 4 hives due to storms, (a tree fell on them, I was left with no bees and a lot of firewood!). My personal time may well be limited this year, I am creeping up the NHS waiting lists, so I want easily established hives.
I have been looking at all the usual suppliers and others I have never heard of.
I intend to use the hives purely as honey gathering colonies away from my main apiaries.
I would like to canvas your views on the following posers
Buckfasts?
Over wintered NUC or Spring NUC?
Good suppliers?
Any other advice?
Normally I would split existing hives and raise or buy in queens. This year i am going to be short of colonies to rob for brood and bees and my colleague who normally helps has reduced her hives from 12 to 4.

Check out R&R Bee Company (formerly Paynes) who have overwintered nucs available - all locally bred (East Sussex). I’ve had both nucs and local queens from them and they’ve all been great. Website is bees and queens.co.uk
Good luck!

 

[ericbeaumont]

started to lay and was killed within a week of introduction

laid a beautiful pattern for a few months before also being replaced

Did you introduce to a nuc first, Roger? One of these would be worth the expense:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/29622510...aXkuxfnR16&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
https://www.beckysbeesonlineshop.co.uk/queen-introduction-cage-1076-p.asp

 

[Roger.Wilco]

queens I presume had succumbed to something, what type of queen were they ?

The queens that succumbed were Buckfast queens. Replacing maybe what were probably Carniolan.

Did you introduce to a nuc first, Roger? One of these would be worth the expense:

The first queen who succumbed within the first week was introduced into a split; where the BS introduction instructions were followed to the letter. The second queen who went on to lay beautifully for months before succumbing was "thrown" into an existing hive where the original queen had been removed out to her own NUC.

Thanks - regarding the queen frame cages. I will be looking into using them in future.

===
I'm currently traveling behind the great firewall through the middle kingdom at the moment. Internet access to the outside world is patchy at best; fully restricted at worst. Interestingly this forum is allowed; whereas, others sites like the Guardian, BBC are not. Many beekeeping suppliers (rightfully?) 403 restrict their pages to those in Asia. The funniest is Abelo which randomly forwards to a "Rick Rolling" video on youtube which is surprising as youtube is fully blocked here - yet it works. Funny the first & second time but annoying when trying to get stuff ordered to arrive on my return.

 

[Penninetrader]

The queens that succumbed were Buckfast queens. Replacing maybe what were probably Carniolan.

The first queen who succumbed within the first week was introduced into a split; where the BS introduction instructions were followed to the letter. The second queen who went on to lay beautifully for months before succumbing was "thrown" into an existing hive where the original queen had been removed out to her own NUC.

Thanks - regarding the queen frame cages. I will be looking into using them in future.

===
I'm currently traveling behind the great firewall through the middle kingdom at the moment. Internet access to the outside world is patchy at best; fully restricted at worst. Interestingly this forum is allowed; whereas, others sites like the Guardian, BBC are not. Many beekeeping suppliers (rightfully?) 403 restrict their pages to those in Asia. The funniest is Abelo which randomly forwards to a "Rick Rolling" video on youtube which is surprising as youtube is fully blocked here - yet it works. Funny the first & second time but annoying when trying to get stuff ordered to arrive on my return.

That split, if it had eggs would have given them opportunity to produce their own queen. Bees make their own assessments as to the best route forward that does not always coincide with our plans. They clearly do not always get it right. My suspicion is that the drones they have mated with have some bearing on this and or that the drones in your area are dominant. I wonder how much difference there would have been if introducing virgins.

 

[ericbeaumont]

introduced into a split

second queen ... "thrown" into an existing hive

Introduced to fairly strong colonies, then. Tricky & expensive to try, esp. in high season when eggs give them options. Better to give them to weak Q- nucs and cage the queen on sealed brood.