How we get your queens, nucs, and honey to you
How we deliver queens, nucs, and honey across the UK, what to expect at each step, and our live arrival guarantee.
We’re a small, family-run bee farm in Wales, and we take real care getting your order to you, whether that’s a queen, a starter colony, or a jar of honey.
This page pulls together everything we can tell you about how we deliver, what to expect, and where we can and can’t help. If anything here isn’t clear, email us and we’ll sort it out.
Our Promise
We keep things simple. We guarantee your bees arrive alive, and we’ll replace anything that arrives dead, as long as you send the video described below. We can’t guarantee exactly when your order lands, and we don’t offer refunds or rebates for Royal Mail delays.
We only ship within the UK.
How we send your order
We use two Royal Mail services, depending on what you’ve ordered.
Live bees, meaning queens and nucs, travel by Royal Mail Special Delivery. It’s signed for, fully tracked, and aims to arrive the next day. Because someone has to sign, we can’t send live bees any other way. We cannot guarantee it arrives on a certain day or time slot, but we do guarantee it will alive.
Honey and other non-live products go by Royal Mail’s Tracked 48 service. There’s no signature needed, and you can follow the parcel with tracking updates along the way.
We hold full DASH accreditation (the Disease Assurance Scheme for Honey Bees). We’re a responsible bee farm, we take the welfare of our bees seriously, and that shapes how we pack and post every live colony.
Since Brexit, we can only deliver within the UK. That applies to queens, nucs, and honey alike.
Queen delivery
Your queen travels in a perforated cardboard mailing packet. It’s built to protect her while letting plenty of air through. On the card you’ll find a QR code that links straight to our queen introduction instructions, so you can get her settled properly.
Here’s how the order plays out:
- You’ll get an order confirmation email when you place your order.
- On the day we dispatch, we’ll send a dispatch notification with your tracking code, usually before 4pm.
- The next day, Royal Mail will text or email you.
Someone needs to be home to sign, as we can’t send queens on a non-signature service.
If your queen arrives dead
We’ll replace her free of charge. We do need video evidence of the dead queen in her unopened cage, next to the packing note that came with your delivery. Email that to info@blackmountainhoney.co.uk and we’ll get a replacement sorted.
On delivery timing
We guarantee your queen arrives alive, but we can’t guarantee exactly when she’ll turn up. Royal Mail’s claims process isn’t practical for us to pursue, so we don’t give refunds or rebates for late delivery. We’d rather be honest about that than hide it in the small print.
If you miss the delivery, Royal Mail will automatically try again the next day. Don’t panic. Queens can survive several days in the post, so a short delay won’t harm her. If your queen arrives after 1pm, treat it the same as any other delay. She’ll be fine, and everything above still applies.
We don’t usually offer collection for queens. For larger orders we can sometimes arrange it by prior agreement, so email us if that would help.
Nucs: delivery and collection
Special Delivery is free and included in the price. We collect the nucs at 5:30pm and send them straight to the Chester sorting office, so they arrive anywhere in the UK the next day. We don’t offer weekend delivery for nucs, as the risk of delay is too high for live bees.
The rest works like our queen delivery. It’s signed for and tracked, we guarantee live arrival with the same video evidence, Royal Mail will reattempt the next day if you miss it, and we can’t guarantee timing or refund for Royal Mail delays.
When your nuc is ready
Overwintered nucs are ready from March to May, and spring nucs from May to July. We don’t send any nucs after July. The £50 deposit is non-refundable, but you can move your date or carry it over to the following year if you need to.
We don’t phone to confirm your nuc is ready as standard, as we work through email and text. If we don’t hear back from you, we’ll give you a call.
Honey and other products
Postage is free on all our honey within the UK. We send it by Royal Mail’s Tracked 48 service, so there’s no signature to worry about. Royal Mail will leave your parcel in a safe place, and you’ll get tracking updates along the way.
