# Hi...where would one buy bees?



## Hampton (Apr 24, 2007)

Bill,

Take a look around for a local club, you may be able to get bees or at least help in this matter and you may be able to pick up a Nuc of local bees near to you. You could also contact VP Queen Bees in Maryland (http://www.vpqueenbees.com) or Bjorn Apiary in Pennsylvania (http://bjornapiaries.com).


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

You can buy an 8-frame nuc from Kirk Webster for $180.

A pair of 4-frame nucs is $220

It is a lot of money but it could be a very good investment. 

If I lived up your way I would consider buying the 8-frame nuc (which is in a 10 frame box) and then get one of Kirk's queens later and do a split.

Kirk Webster
Champlain Valley Bees and Queens
802-758-2501

If you start with packages I would diffidently re-queen with Kirk's queens. 

Is Middlebury and Bridport Vermont far from you? You can pick up queens for $22 each in Bridport VT.


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## bigbearomaha (Sep 3, 2009)

Pick them like cherries from a local bee-tree. But you got to pick them early, if you wait too long, they will fly off the bee-trees and go find a home anywhere they can.

Then, only the honey bee fairy can get them back.


Big Bear


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

If I put a used brood comb under my pillow one night, will the Honey Bee Fairy bring me a nuc?


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## bigbearomaha (Sep 3, 2009)

nah, that's how the tooth fairy works. The honey bee fairy might come if you put a full honey comb under a hive though.

Big Bear


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

http://www.beesource.com/bees-supplies/


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## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

BeeCurious said:


> You can buy an 8-frame nuc for $180.
> A pair of 4-frame nucs is $220
> QUOTE]
> 
> oh myoh myoh myoh my


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## beeking1 (Jan 22, 2010)

Hi Bill,
Because I don't live in New Hampshire (but absolutely love Vermont and N.H.), I don't know all there is to know about which variety of bees might do best in that area. So, I admit my ignorance about that! The best thing(s) to do are:
1. Go to *beekeeping school* first and learn everything you can in a very short time.

2. Unfortunately, you must move quickly for *NOW* is the time to order your bees.

3. A somewhat educated guess is that Buckfast Bees might, and I say might do well in N.H. and FOR A BEGINNER. Although the bees are a little slow to start up in the spring, they are cold and possess good to excellent disease resistance. Once under way, they are great honey producers. The other breed for beginners is Italians. Again, I don't know how they'd do in NH

4. Find some people in the area who raise bees and visit their hives. I don't know if Ed Weiss is still alive and I think he is in Ct. He put out an excellent DVD to help beginners get started.

Sorry, forgot the place to get Buckfast is RWeaver in Texas I think another Weaver also has hybrid Buckfasts which may be superior to 'regular' Buckfast-I don't know this for a fact as I am trying the hybrids from the BWeaver for the first time this spring.

5. If you cannot find ANYONE, come to Frankfort, Ky in March. They have a fairly good bee course-you can pick and choose the courses many taught by profs and experienced people

Good luck


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## stripstrike (Aug 29, 2009)

b.walden said:


> my daughter and I are starting a hive in the spring ...and I am wondering where do you all buy your bees. We live in New Hampshire and I am not sure when to order them. Thanks, this forum has answered alot of my question
> 
> -Bill


My club president has a site, nebees.com, we're just south of the NH border on route three. He's taking package orders as of this week.


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## b.walden (Jan 16, 2010)

thanks everybody I will look into the local clubs and the other info too. -Bill


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

BeeCurious said:


> You can buy an 8-frame nuc from Kirk Webster for $180.
> 
> A pair of 4-frame nucs is $220


Too late!

Kirk Webster has sold out!


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## dart96 (Mar 4, 2008)

Hi Bill, 

As one of the other posters suggested, you could get a package of bees from Rick at New England Beekeeping Supplies in Tyngsboro, MA (nebees.com).

Another option is Ben Chadwick from Spring Fever Farm. He's a commercial beekeeper (and State Inspector) and he will have packages this year too. he's located in Alton, NH (603-875-3544).

Definitely check out the local clubs. I belong to Pawtuckaway (meets in Candia) and Seacoast Beekeepers (meets in Lee). Here's a link to the NH Beekeepers site that lists all the clubs in the state. http://www.nhbeekeepers.org/LocalClubs.htm

Good luck!


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Of course, you could look on the For Sale forum on this site. There are packaged bees and nucleus colonies for sale there. Nucs other than Webster's for sale in Vermont, if you look.


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## throrope (Dec 18, 2008)

I bought my first package through Draper's Super Bee Apiary.

http://draperbee.com/

They drove them overnight from Rossman's in Georgia to north central PA and then sent them via US mail to me in SE PA. I counted only five dead bees in the package. The queen didn't lay and without question, Rossman's shipped me a new one. From that package I now have six hives and gave two away from collected swarms and most recently queenless splits.

Nucs are great for starting with standard Langstroth hives and I hear they build up faster with a greater potential for first year harvest. If you're thinking about going top bar, I feel a package is a better start. I didn't have any luck transitioning to top bar from Langstroth.

If you are successful in building up a hive in your first year, consider splitting in late June or July so that a second hive has time to build up and survive the winter. Three hives take no more time than one and a losing one is better than losing your only one.

Good luck and have a ball.


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