# White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY



## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*

I'll be interested in knowing how the "great" nucs do...

A friend of mine was disappointed with the nucs she purchased from White Oak.


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## cowdoc (May 15, 2011)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*

I tried White Oak Apiary nucs this year also. I picked them up on June 8. On June 15, I photographed them all. I put the pictures on my website at www.beevet.com/WhiteOak/WhiteOakMain.php

I bought 12, 3 were for other people, and 2 more were sold upon arrival home. I heard that one of the 3 had built up well, another was building, but slow, and no word on the other or the 2 sold last. I tried to sell the best nucs (most bees, heaviest) to the other people, so the 7 I have pictured are probably the worst of all 12. 

I called, emailed and texted Mike Bruen to ask for his comments first. I have not heard back on any of those methods of communication. I do have my limited comments on what I am seeing at the bottom of each page. each page has a picture of both sides of each frame. There are a few missing that I did not get done right. All of the nucs have recently been combined with another or a swarm in order to try to have some strength for winter. I am not sure in the combined form they will be ready for winter. Most were not drawing out, and I had had issues trying to get them queenright. I moved them from the nucs into new wood with new wood and foundation or new pierco with extra wax painted on to entice the bees to draw it out. 

Is this typical of what people are selling for nuc hives? I am looking to buy a lot of nucs and/or packages next year. The talk on the website was good. Not sure the product measured up.

Chris
Washington County, NY


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## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*

I bought my NUC from George Jersey, Barnveld NY I took a class with him at our local Cornell Cooperative Ext. and I know he has done quite a few; I have heard no complaints. This is my first year, and I would recommend him. If you need a phone number or email I will pass it on to you. I believe he is Wild Mountain Apiaries, NY.


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## xcugat (Mar 4, 2008)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*

2013 Heads up on this (yes I am still annoyed....) For anyone thinking about White Oak Nucs look at COW Docs photos pretty conclusive and similar to what I experienced


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*



cowdoc said:


> Is this typical of what people are selling for nuc hives? I am looking to buy a lot of nucs and/or packages next year. The talk on the website was good. Not sure the product measured up.
> 
> Chris
> Washington County, NY


I looked at some of the photos you posted Chris. Pitiful examples of nucleus colonies.
The nucs you ordered for this season will have 2 frames honey and 3 frames of brood. 



Mike


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## xcugat (Mar 4, 2008)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*

Update: The article in the April edition of Bee culture regarding "Buying Nucs", tells a similar horrible story from another customer. Though the apiary is not named it is certainly White Oak, which can be figured out by quotes from the apiary website (which are still up by the way if you google the quotes) BEWARE you will not get what you pay for and this article further proves it


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## mahobee (Apr 24, 2013)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*

I also had a bad experience with Mike. Rather than bore you with all the gory details, suffice to say he is not set up in a professional manner, has no record keeping, sells shoddy equipment as new, is EXTREMELY difficult to contact, and told me "I am a wholesaler, I can't provide service to individuals'. There are so many nice helpful beekeepers out there, why deal with a nasty one?


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## dnichols (May 28, 2012)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*

Cowdoc, 2 out of 7 isnt bad.... right? :s

I purchased 6 queens in the two trips I made to Brewster last year. Not one ever started laying and most made an attempt to supersede but it was late in the season. I ended up combining what I could to save the nucs from robbing and yellow jacket attacks. I lost all but one nuc. I made a few attempts to contact him to no avail. Very sad. Live and learn.


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## RSHyde (Oct 21, 2013)

*Re: White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY--no Quality control (unless you inspect each*

If you want to get stung in the wallet, order your bees from White Oaks Apiary. We drove from N.H. to Brewster to pick up 2 nucs on June 29 - much later than promised. Communication was poor - but we wanted to support a northeast apiary. I checked the bees by opening the box and the top of the nucs were covered with bees. I thought everything was ok - big mistake. We put the nucs in bee bags and drove home in an air-conditioned car, with no stops on the way. To our surprise the bees did not want to stay in one nuc and it wasn't long before we had a good number of bees flying around the car as we drove. With rain on the way we decided to hive the nucs that afternoon. I pulled the frame on the first nuc and found 85% of the bees were dead. They were cooked - really cooked and gross. It was obvious that this box had been left closed in the sun for a long time. I took photos and went to the second nuc. The second nuc had live bees and I moved the frames into my hive. I found pollen and honey. Very little brood. No recently laid eggs. Little black hive beetles. And a queen cell. This nuc was too weak and it didn't make it. We contacted White Oaks immediately concerning the dead nuc and sent the photos. Eventually we got a response that stated the problem was on our end. I don't think so. Repeated emails have been ignored. Lesson learned - check your nucs more carefully and don't support a poorly managed apiary.


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