Nucleus Colony vs Packaged Bees
If you want bees from any beekeeper, get your order in as soon as possible. If you are not confirmed on a waiting list you may not get bees bought in 2024.
Our Nucs are proven working colonies with all the players already doing their individual jobs. All they need is a little time and care and they will easily become full blown production hives. We use them to increase our own production colony numbers every year.
Our Nucs are proven working colonies with all the players already doing their individual jobs. All they need is a little time and care and they will easily become full blown production hives. We use them to increase our own production colony numbers every year.
Nucleus Colonies
Nucs come with their own queen and new baby bees in all stages of life. In short the queen is a proven layer in a working brood chamber. The bees already have drawn comb for her to lay in with nectar and pollen stores available. The bees are immediately able to go to work on brood and honey production. They are well on their way to becoming a thriving hive. Our nucs have always been delivered before April 15th.
Package of Bees
Packages of bees have become the only way some people can start keeping bees because nucleus colonies sell out quickly every year. If you have to start with a package then our best advice is to have a beekeeper you can use as a mentor and possibly purchase some drawn comb from.
Package bees come to you with nothing more than the stripes on their little backs and a mated queen in a cage to keep the bees from killing her. There are concerns because of the early delivery of the packages that the queens are not mated well. The bees are shaken into a package from different hives and are not related to the queen or each other. The bees must accept the queen before she is released from her cage. Most times they do accept her. The package has no drawn comb for the queen to start laying. No drawn comb for the bees to store nectar and pollen. Nectar and pollen is required to feed the new baby bees needed to replace the soon to die bees that came with the package. It takes 8 pounds of nectar to produce one pound of drawn comb. Time is working against you. You must keep feeding the package to help them draw the comb. They may not like your hive and abscond. They may supersede the queen setting them back another month while they raise a new queen. All of this being said, you can still keep them alive and make a hive from a package of bees.
Package bees come to you with nothing more than the stripes on their little backs and a mated queen in a cage to keep the bees from killing her. There are concerns because of the early delivery of the packages that the queens are not mated well. The bees are shaken into a package from different hives and are not related to the queen or each other. The bees must accept the queen before she is released from her cage. Most times they do accept her. The package has no drawn comb for the queen to start laying. No drawn comb for the bees to store nectar and pollen. Nectar and pollen is required to feed the new baby bees needed to replace the soon to die bees that came with the package. It takes 8 pounds of nectar to produce one pound of drawn comb. Time is working against you. You must keep feeding the package to help them draw the comb. They may not like your hive and abscond. They may supersede the queen setting them back another month while they raise a new queen. All of this being said, you can still keep them alive and make a hive from a package of bees.
