Products for sale (contact us for availability)
  • Bottled Honey at Blacksburg (formerly Heavener) Hardware, Eats Natural Foods, Akke's Yoga Place, Glade Road Growing, Smithfield Plantation, and Annie Kay's Main St Market in Blacksburg, VA 
  • Bees wax and Propolis
  • Queens (mated, virgin, and cells) in season, generally from late May through early July.  See below.
  • Nucleus colonies in season from late April through mid June depending on weather and availability. 

2020 Nucs    
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 2020. 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 2020 will be in early to mid May, but it depends entirely on the weather.  The first ones available will be overwintered nucs with queens from summer of 2019.   Around mid May we will have nucs headed by daughters of VP Queen's Spartan line.  https://vpqueenbees.com/vp-breeding-program/breeding-strains    These are VSH Carniolan bees.  In mid to late May we will have a limited number of nucs with 2020 queens from my own stock. Some of these later 2020 queens will be daughters of a Harbo VSH breeder queen.

Each nuc includes the marked queen, worker bees and 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 the nucs have been ready over a period from the last week of April to the third week in May.  Most are ready early to mid 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.   

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 2020 VP Spartan queen- $175.

All nucs come in a cardboard or coraplast nuc box.  No frame exchange and no installs into your equipment.
Non-refundable deposit for each nuc.  Contact me for verification before mailing deposit.   My nuc list will start Feb 1.

Limited numbers of 2020 Queens  
Most mated queens for sale are open mated at our nuc yards just outside Blacksburg, VA.   In 2020 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 2020 so contact me ahead of time.  I do not 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.

Small quantities of virgins and cells will be available with 2 to 3 weeks lead time.  Virgins- $18, Cells- $9 each.  Virgins will be in a queen cage with attendants.  For queen cells you need to bring an insulated container (like a small cooler) with padding inside and a heat source to keep the temperature between 82 and 94 degrees F.  They are to be placed into a queenless nuc the same day.

Local pick up only at this time.  I will be out of town for two to three weeks in July and August.

Our bees are inspected by Virginia Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspectors every spring before sales begin.