The Benefits Of Overwintered Nucs
- Laurence Edwards
- Oct 21, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 7
Why Our Overwintered Nucs Are The Key to a Thriving Apiary
When it comes to expanding your beekeeping operation or starting fresh with new colonies, the quality of your nucs makes all the difference. At Black Mountain Honey, we’re proud to offer overwintered nucs with UK Mated F1 Buckfast Queens, which can provide distinct advantages over spring-started colonies (not always - see further down!)
But what makes our overwintered nucs so special? Let’s take a closer look at why they’re the perfect choice for both new and experienced beekeepers.
What Are Overwintered Nucs?
A nuc, or nucleus colony, is a small but fully functioning hive consisting of a queen, workers, brood, and stores. Unlike spring nucs, which are typically established early in the year, overwintered nucs are raised and managed through the season and overwintered in our apiaries. By the time they’re ready for sale, they’re already strong, well-established colonies that have successfully survived the most challenging time of year.
The Benefits of Overwintered Nucs
Proven Winter Survivability: Overwintering a nuc is a critical test of its health and resilience. By purchasing an overwintered nuc, you're getting bees that have already demonstrated their ability to survive through the cold, often harsh, winter months. This means you're starting the season with a colony that’s proven its strength and adaptability, a key trait for long-term success in any hive.
Early Season Strength: Unlike spring nucs that may take time to build up their population, overwintered nucs hit the ground running. These colonies are already thriving by the time they’re introduced to your apiary. With a queen that’s been laying eggs through the winter, you'll start the season with a strong brood pattern and a robust workforce ready to take full advantage of the early nectar flows.
Well-Established Queens: The queen in an overwintered nuc is typically more mature and better proven than queens from early-season splits. These queens have already gone through a partial season/winter and demonstrated their productivity and health. With an overwintered nuc, you’re getting a queen that’s ready to lead a productive hive right from day one.
Increased Honey Production: One of the biggest advantages of overwintered nucs is the potential for increased honey production. Because the colony is already established, it can focus on foraging and honey storage early in the season. Spring nucs often spend their first few months building population, but overwintered nucs are almost ready to gather nectar, helping you achieve a better honey harvest in their first year. Some customers reported a honey yield of over 300lbs from our overwintered nucs in 2024!
Overwintered Nucs - A Happy Customer Disease and Pest Resistance: Overwintered nucs have already faced the rigours of winter, including any challenges from pests like varroa mites and diseases. We ensure that our nucs are thoroughly inspected and treated as necessary, so when you receive them, you’re getting a healthy, resilient colony. This early test of their health means they’re often better prepared to withstand the challenges of the beekeeping season ahead.
Making Splits: If you are planning on making splits with your nucs an overwintered nuc has a distinct advantage in terms of time. You will receive your nuc much earlier in the season and allow you to grow the colony to make further splits throughout the season.
What About Spring Nucs?
It might appear from reading the above that spring nucs are inferior to overwintered nucs but this isn't always the case and depending on who you buy your bees from, sometimes a spring nuc can actually be the better option for you. Detailed below are some of the benefits of spring nucs:
Less Likely To Swarm: As spring nucs are sent with an in-season queen who is only a few months old, the colony is much less likely to swarm in the first season, potentially increasing your honey yield. Colonies that swarm produce very little honey to harvest!
Don't Have To Replace The Queen: Queen bees tend to live for 2-3 years so if you are getting a queen that is 10-12 months younger, you get more time to reap the benefits of that queen.
Better For Novices: This isn't to say an amateur beekeeper cannot manage an overwintered. We do our best to support all ability of beekeeper. However, a spring nuc is provided a bit later in the season and means that by the time they have grown into a full size colony, the most difficult part of the swarm season is over. This builds confidence in beginner beekeepers and helps avoid any first season blunders.
Better Availability: At Black Mountain Honey, our nucs are in very high demand and we generally sell out of overwintered nucs around Christmas. However, we have availability for spring nucs all throughout the season with our final orders being sent in June.
Why Choose Our Overwintered Nucs?
At Black Mountain Honey, we put great care into the management and preparation of our overwintered nucs and spring nucs. Each one is raised under careful supervision, with a focus on health, productivity, and resilience. Our goal is to provide you with a nuc that will not only survive but thrive, helping you kick-start your beekeeping season with confidence.
Ready to experience the benefits of overwintered nucs for yourself? Contact us today to reserve your nucs for the upcoming season and give your apiary the strong start it deserves!
Looking to make up your own overwintered nucs? Check out my previous blog on how to make nucs up to over winter:
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