What is an overwintered nucleus colony?
You might be hearing this a lot at the moment – you should start beekeeping with an overwintered colony of bees. In this blog, I am going to explain exactly what an overwintered colony of bees is, why they are good for starting you on your beekeeping journey, but also why the summer nucs might be a better idea for you if it’s your first year of beekeeping.
What is a nucleus colony?
Let’s start with the basics. A nucleus colony is at the heart of the every single thriving colony of bees. It’s made up off all of the components required to start a colony from scratch and SHOULD contain all of the following elements:
Mated Queen Bee: Without a properly mated queen bee, honey bees cannot survive. All nucleus colonies will contain a properly mated bee. She should be marked with the correct colour for the season and the beekeeper should ensure she is properly mated before sending your nucleus colony.
Brood In All Stages (BIAS): Brood in all stages is just a fancy way of saying eggs, larvae and pupae of differing ages. It’s the sign of a properly mated queen. You want to see nice cylindrical or oval shaped brood patterns, with no spotty brood patterns on any of the frames. You should expect at least 3-4 frames of BIAS in your nucleus colony.
Frames of Stores: Within a nucleus colony for sale, you should expect 1 or 2 frames of stores. These can either be capped or uncapped and these are very simply the food source for the bees until they are able to expand and gather enough stores to create their own surplus.
Bees: There should be enough bees to comfortably cover all of the frames of brood and stores within the nucleus. It doesn’t need to be overflowing and this can result in issues if there are too many bees in the nucleus on arrival, but all frames should have some bees on when you open it up.
Disease: A nucleus colony should contain no disease whatsoever and should have been thoroughly inspected by the beekeeper prior to dispatch. At Black Mountain Honey, all nucs are checked by a DASH approved inspector prior to dispatch to our customers.
Poly/Correx/Wooden Nucleus Box: All nucleus colonies for sale will arrive in a container to house the bees. For mail order nucs, they are generally sent in correx or poly as they travel through the postal system a little bit better. Our preference at Black Mountain Honey is to send our bee nucs for sale in Poly as they are better insulated from extreme temperatures, which means the bees arrive in a better condition.
What does a good nucleus colony look like?
There are LOTS of nucleus colonies for sale on the market but not all are equal! Here are some top tips to look out for when buying your first nucleus colony:
Type of queen: The mated queen bee in your nucleus will dictate the characteristics of your colony of bees. Ideally, you want nice calm placid bees and by ensuring the queen comes from a line of quality genetics, in the first generation, this will provide you with the best start to your beekeeping hobby. At Black Mountain Honey, all of our queens are mated in Wales and reared from a Pure F0 Buckfast Breeder queen. This means you are getting the absolute best quality F1 Buckfast queens the UK has to offer. Calm, placid, prolific and a pleasure to be around. Check out some of our reviews HERE.
Number of frames: Nucleus colonies generally come in either a 5 or 6 frame format. The extra frame in a 6 frame nucleus represents a 20% increase in bees and brood. Factor this into your consideration when looking at the prices. The extra frame really helps with a rapid spring build up, especially if it’s an extra brood frame that’s included.
