All nucs are not the same

Most experienced beekeepers will tell you that it is best to get your bees from local breeders.  Tennessee weather makes it very difficult to have nucs raised locally that will be ready in March.  With few exceptions nucs that are advertised for pick up earlier than late April or early May were raised/split elsewhere and shipped to our area.  It is a common practice for commercial beekeepers that take bees for pollination in early January to sell the bees when they return in late February or March. Most will come from Florida, Mississippi or Alabama.

Bee colonies returning from pollinating the almond fields are normally in a double deep 10 frame hive. When they return, they are split into 3 or 4 five frame nucs.  A new queen is added and those nucs are “ready” for sale.  That means the bees in the nuc are not offspring of that queen. The laying pattern in the nuc is not from that queen.  In fact, you cannot be sure she is even mated. As is sometimes the case, if the queen is still in a cage (to protect in shipping!) that is a sign this is a new queen and it is possible the bees may not accept her.  It is unlikely that you will be able to inspect the nuc before you take it home.

Five frame locally raised nuc(less) colony (Medium and dee)

Our nucs are raised in our apiary in middle Tennessee.  All the bees in your nuc will be offspring of that queen.  You will be able to judge her laying patterns and the demeanor of her offspring. In fact, if you tell us in advance, we will load the bees in your hive or transport box while you are present.  We also mark the queens in our nucs. We use new frames drawn by the bees in our nuc to assure the wax comb is free from diseass and pests.  Our bees are treated for mites.  All our nucs are inspected by the Tennessee State Bee Inspector and will have an inspection sticker on the nuc confirming the inspection.

Look for a current year TN state inspection sticker

\As with anything, you can always find it cheaper somewhere, but usually you get what you pay for.  That can be particularly true when purchasing a live product or animal. Be especially careful purchasing bees on-line. There are numerous scams for packages and nucs.

As the old saying goes, if you don’t know bees, know your beekeeper!