Products for sale (contact us for availability)
- Bottled Honey at Blacksburg (formerly Heavener) Hardware, Eats Natural Foods, Glade Road Growing, Smithfield Plantation, and Annie Kay's Main St Market in Blacksburg, VA
- Bees wax and Propolis
- Queens occasionally. See below.
- A limited number of nucs in season from late April through mid June depending on weather and availability.
2021 Nucs SOLD OUT
First come, first served. $30 nonrefundable deposit required to get on the list. Do not send a deposit before you contact me at rkereid@comcast.net and I respond to verify that there are still nucs available. Please read all the details on this page concerning the nucleus colonies that we sell. If you have questions contact me.
We will have five frame, medium frame nucs for sale in the spring of 2021. We do not have any deep frame nucs for sale. You can use medium frames to start your colony even if you use deeps for brood boxes. Just install them into a medium honey super, if you use them, or if you don't, install them in a deep brood box and eventually move the medium frames out of the hive as the bees fill your brood boxes.
The first nucs that we will sell in 2021 will be in late April to early May, but it depends entirely on the weather. The first ones available will be overwintered nucs with queens from summer of 2020. Around mid May we will have nucs headed by 2021 daughters of VP Queen's Spartan line and also Sue Cobey's New World Carniolan line. In mid to late May we may have a limited number of nucs with 2021 queens from my own stock.
Each nuc includes a marked queen, worker bees, brood, and consists of a mix of brood on 4 frames and one frame containing some pollen and honey. I make my nucs heavy on brood and bees because nectar is usually coming in by the time the nucs are ready. This gives you a quick increase in population which is ideal in the spring build up. Frames may be Mann Lake PF120 plastic, wood with standard drawn comb from foundation (or Ritecell plastic), or foundationless comb. Each nuc will include at least 4 full frames of bees.
Our nucs are available only after they have built up to adequate strength. You are assured that you will receive a colony that is expanding well. There is no set date as the weather will be different every year. Cold or wet spring weather will mean later pickup dates. Over the past 5 years most of the nucs have been ready over a period from the last week of April to the third week in May. I will contact you approximately a week ahead of pickup time. Also my list is compiled by date, so first come, first served. Later requests will be later pickup. I'll start my nuc list on January 1, 2021.
We only sell strong, healthy nucs that show high potential. These are the ones that we would be happy to keep ourselves.
Nuc prices are as follows-
-Overwintered nuc- $175.
-Nuc with 2021 queen- $175.
All nucs come in a temporary cardboard or coraplast 5 frame nuc box. No frame exchange and no installs into your equipment.
Non-refundable deposit for each nuc. Always contact me for verification before mailing deposit.
Limited numbers of 2021 Queens
Most mated queens for sale are open mated at our nuc yards just outside Blacksburg, VA. In 2021 we will graft from our own best selected queens. I occasionally have extra mated queens from other queenrearers. I will be selling a limited number of queens in 2021 so contact me ahead of time. I do not typically ship queens.
My mating yards are surrounded by 35 - 40 strong production hives, in several yards, within a 1.5 mile radius. These production hives are our drone producers. This ensures a wide diversity of mating for our queens.
$35 each marked with this year's color. Contact me for availability.
Our bees are inspected by Virginia Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspectors every spring before sales begin.
