How much are nucs going for now?

[RosieMc]

Hello everyone

How much are nucs going for now? Can anyone give me a suggested price?
I have never sold one before

I have mated laying Q with eggs and brood from A/S created in April (its taken this long for a couple of days sun for her to mate in late May).

Bees cover at least 5 frames. Don't know the breed, but they are dark.

I may also consider selling the National hive they are in - its a bit old, but fully serviceable - closed floor, brood box, crown board, roof.

What a good site this is. I wish I would have known about it when I started beekeeping.

 

[Ed Woods]

I think its about £120 on average - could be more

 

[RosieMc]

Thanks Ed, I thought perhaps about that. The Garden Centre near me is holding a Bee Keeping week end course in a couple of weeks, perhaps someone may be interested...

 

[Black Comb]

I'd ask £140 as you've only got one to shift and it sounds quite strong.
£140 was local price a few weeks ago.

 

[For want of a better word]

can anyone top £380 ! but that did include a video on how to construct a cheap top bar hive to keep them in,,, bees packaged in a polystyrene box???

Not saying where...

 

[Chris B]

Depends how badly you need to shift it.

Part of the value of a nucleus is it's potential to make honey this season. Yours has no emerging brood and so the older bees will be tending young rather than foraging much. i.e. it's got no momentum and won't have for a short while. No honey crop is likely. However, I still wouldn't let it go for less than £100 under any circumstances. Better option would be to overwinter it and sell for £200 next spring.

 

[psafloyd]

Just saw the latest London BKA newsletter and they had some for £135 which included £35 deposit on the nuc box.

Priority to those who have done one of their courses.

 

[tawny]

Nuc prices - to buy or not to buy

I was at our BSBKA meeting yesterday where some people had bees on order yet orders were being slow to be fulfilled from a particular company. I would have been looking to buy a NUC and some are sold on ******** around the 100-140 price mark, but I was advised not to bother now for this year as most of the effort would be based on getting them through the winter. I am new to this game only having one swarm I have had for 3 weeks but this was suggested by the secretary of my local association.
I did wonder if late in season nucs go for less?

 

[RosieMc]

Depends how badly you need to shift it.

Part of the value of a nucleus is it's potential to make honey this season. Yours has no emerging brood and so the older bees will be tending young rather than foraging much. i.e. it's got no momentum and won't have for a short while. No honey crop is likely. However, I still wouldn't let it go for less than £100 under any circumstances. Better option would be to overwinter it and sell for £200 next spring.

Good idea - possibly sell next spring - hope the winter will not be as bad as the last one. I will see what interest there is.

 

[Mrs Soup]

........ I was advised not to bother now for this year as most of the effort would be based on getting them through the winter. I am new to this game only having one swarm I have had for 3 weeks but this was suggested by the secretary of my local association.
I did wonder if late in season nucs go for less?

I find the comments that it's to late in the season to go for a nuc quite interesting. We had a 5 frame nuc 3rd week of May last year and had 60lb of honey off it. Maybe we were just lucky.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

but I was advised not to bother now for this year as most of the effort would be based on getting them through the winter.?

And what is wrong with that?

You have to learn to get them through the winter any way. Also it is not the size of the cluster than counts but the free space they don't occupy.

Its just a factor of ratios of bees, to stores, to free space.

 

[peteinwilts]

If beekeeping is an 'effort', then why do it at all.

I also had NUC's later than this last year and got 30-40lb+ from each and all were healthy through the Winter.


I lost a swarm late in July leaving a relatively small colony. The colony still entered winter occupying a 14x12 AND a super (as they could not all fit in a single 14x12 hive!) ... and came out of winter almost the same size.