# Best place to get some Buckfast queens???



## Blueridgebeecompany (Dec 7, 2016)

Hello,

Looking to buy some buckfast queens for my apiary and nucs in southern WV. I know weaver in texas has some but have heard they are hot... Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!


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## AAIndigo (Jun 14, 2015)

http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.eversweetapiaries.com/products.htm&h=gAQEoSY6e


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Depends on how many you want. Ferguson Apiaries in Canada is a decent source. With the difference between U.S. and Canadian dollars, it works out a tad over $30 per queen. There is about $95 in fees to cross the border. You can get 10 queens for $400 or thereabouts.


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## Bogito Joe (Dec 10, 2020)

Blueridgebeecompany said:


> Hello,
> 
> Looking to buy some buckfast queens for my apiary and nucs in southern WV. I know weaver in texas has some but have heard they are hot... Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!


Were you able to get the Buckfast Queens you were looking for? How did they work for you? I was finding varied information about Buckfast hives that re-queen themselves becoming aggressive. How has your experiance been?


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

I get mine from Hooterville Honey Bees, look him up on YT or Facebook.


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## Bogito Joe (Dec 10, 2020)

ifixoldhouses said:


> I get mine from Hooterville Honey Bees, look him up on YT or Facebook.


Thanks for sharing that source. I'm going to need to re-queen two hives and split both of them. (Four new Queens) Before I commit to making them all Buckfast...let me ask you.. How did they work for you? I was finding varied information about Buckfast hives that re-queen themselves becoming aggressive. How has your experience been?


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

Bogito Joe said:


> Thanks for sharing that source. I'm going to need to re-queen two hives and split both of them. (Four new Queens) Before I commit to making them all Buckfast...let me ask you.. How did they work for you? I was finding varied information about Buckfast hives that re-queen themselves becoming aggressive. How has your experience been?


I've only had them a few months, he gets the Breeder from Canada, he's in Michigan, I've heard that myself, not sure yet on that though.


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## Clayton Huestis (Jan 6, 2013)

For Buckfast is the US try these: 

Buckfast Queens (1-9). shipped August 14th. Arriving August 15th-16th (foxhoneyfarm.com) 
Pricing Information – Novinger Apiaries – Buckfast Bees (wordpress.com) 
All Products (newriverhoneybees.com) search buckfast


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## Bogito Joe (Dec 10, 2020)

Clayton, Have you used these queens and how has your experience been.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

If you choose to purchase from New River Honey Bees, stay up late New Years eve and be online at 12:01 am. Last year he was sold out of almost everything by 6 am. I am trying again this year to get his New River Caucasians. Did not realize how fast they would go last year!


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## William Bagwell (Sep 4, 2019)

JWPalmer said:


> If you choose to purchase from New River Honey Bees, stay up late New Years eve and be online at 12:01 am.


Thanks for the tip! They are reasonably close so might be my best source for diversity next year. Inquired a few weeks ago at a dealer for VP Queen Bees (Ridge top Apiaries) and not heard back yet. New River seems to have a lot more to chose from. Oh, "2021 Pre-orders will open on our web-store on Jan. 5th at 9pm est." so no late night needed.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Thank you. Did not look at the preorder info for 2021. Going by last year's preorder date and time. Still they sold out very quickly. I got on a waiting list but was never contacted.


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## Clayton Huestis (Jan 6, 2013)

Bogito Joe said:


> Clayton, Have you used these queens and how has your experience been.


That is where my research for US buckfast brought me so far. I currently use carniolan and carni hybrids. At one point I was considering starting an all Buckfast apiaries. I think that the stock I currently have is best suited for my area. Figured I'd share what I had found.


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## Bogito Joe (Dec 10, 2020)

It seems odd to me that there are few, if any, that have had good, lasting experiences with Buckfast hives. I have two mutt hives now that swing widely in defensiveness I had a two year old Italian VHS queen stop laying eggs in my third hive. I was wanting to try something different but. Wildflower Meadow's VHS Inseminated Italian has been the best so far. I will have four hives ready for new queens as soon as the first batch is ready to ship. Thanks to all of you for all the great input. I hope others will benefit from this discussion as well. Merry Christmas to Everyone!


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

I am a little late posting on this subject, but I wanted to say that I used Buckfast from Canada for a number of years and I had excellent results from them. I never had supersedure queens that were cross, in fact, the cross of Buckfast with Russian became my best honey producers and were very docile. The Buckfast were healthy and had better than average varroa resistance than the Italians of that time period. I stopped using them because the cost became more than I could afford.

Any bee from Texas I would be cautious with due to the amount of African they could have in them. I have bought bees from Navasota twice in the past 10 years and had to replace them do to aggressive behavior. I live in a subdivision and can't afford to have a stinging incident.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

Jason with NewRiverHoneybees is changing his web orders this year to allow more people to get his stock (which is great, by the way). He is not doing the Jan 1 thing anymore but only putting some items on Jan 6, and will continue to load more inventory as the weeks go by. I purchased Buckfast from New River Honeybees as well as Hooterville in MI.


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## Tigger19687 (Dec 27, 2014)

Bogito Joe said:


> It seems odd to me that there are few, if any, that have had good, lasting experiences with Buckfast hives. I have two mutt hives now that swing widely in defensiveness I


You have MUTTS as you say (and in TX with Africanized Bees present )so you can not in all honesty you the Buckfast as bad. Or good for that matter.
I have Buckfast Mutts and they are nice bees. My 1st nuc I got was a wild bred queen from pure Buckfast queen. My other 2 hives came from her.
Will see what Spring holds but that 1st Queen was a Great layer this past Spring


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## Bogito Joe (Dec 10, 2020)

Tigger19687 said:


> You have MUTTS as you say (and in TX with Africanized Bees present )so you can not in all honesty you the Buckfast as bad. Or good for that matter.
> I have Buckfast Mutts and they are nice bees. My 1st nuc I got was a wild bred queen from pure Buckfast queen. My other 2 hives came from her.
> Will see what Spring holds but that 1st Queen was a Great layer this past Spring


I think you misunderstood my last entry. I personally have never had Buckfast. I am remarking on what the consensus of opinion seems to be. I base this on observations that I have collected from other people.


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## Bogito Joe (Dec 10, 2020)

ruthiesbees said:


> Jason with NewRiverHoneybees is changing his web orders this year to allow more people to get his stock (which is great, by the way). He is not doing the Jan 1 thing anymore but only putting some items on Jan 6, and will continue to load more inventory as the weeks go by. I purchased Buckfast from New River Honeybees as well as Hooterville in MI.


I truly appreciate the heads up on ordering from New River. I think I have decided to order from Wildflower Meadows. They have a VSH Italian Queen that is inseminated with select stock. I have one now (2yrs old) and she was my best producer this year I will need six queens this spring. The Buckfast will be far more expensive. Thanks for the information.


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## William Bagwell (Sep 4, 2019)

William Bagwell said:


> New River seems to have a lot more to chose from. Oh, "2021 Pre-orders will open on our web-store on Jan. 5th at 9pm est." so no late night needed.


Apparently only virgin queens this go around. Every production queen I clicked on said sold out  Will keep trying! Think I read it will be Sunday nights at 9:00 PM eastern for the next try(s).

BTW any idea why the sales page will not work on my desktop? Got in on my phone. Both Firefox... Rest of their site works just fine on my desktop. Even deleted cookies.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

William, I just posted in the "Today in the Apiary" sub-forum about how fast Jason sold out of this week's allotment of production queens. I had to open up another page at 9:01 because the one I had opened earlier and was waiting with would not allow me to click on the add to cart button once 9:00 rolled around. Weird. I did manage to order the two NR Caucasian production queens I wanted. As of now, he still has Buckfast II breeder queens available for $500 each. Not a bad deal if you plan on making more than 8 production queens with her.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

William Bagwell said:


> Apparently only virgin queens this go around. Every production queen I clicked on said sold out  Will keep trying! Think I read it will be Sunday nights at 9:00 PM eastern for the next try(s).
> 
> BTW any idea why the sales page will not work on my desktop? Got in on my phone. Both Firefox... Rest of their site works just fine on my desktop. Even deleted cookies.


I was able to secure one at 9pm tonight EST. I just checked at 5 am Wed morning, and the option for a Buckfast II queen is still there. In fact, all of them still looked to be there. Just need to click on your option for the "sold out" to go away and you can drop it in your cart.
https://newriverhoneybees.com/shop/...y-2020-artificially-inseminated-breeder-queen


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## William Bagwell (Sep 4, 2019)

I'm a few years away from trying a breeder queen... Think it was 9:08 when I first got in on my phone and all production queens were sold out. Still virgins available at 9:20. Wife wants ankle biters so we will try on her Windows box next round.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

William Bagwell said:


> I'm a few years away from trying a breeder queen... Think it was 9:08 when I first got in on my phone and all production queens were sold out. Still virgins available at 9:20. Wife wants ankle biters so we will try on her Windows box next round.


I will be making F1 queens from the II Buckfast I bought from Jason. I really like his line, I've bought mated or virgin production queens from him for a couple of years. Super gentle and fun to work. Send me a message in June 2021 and I'll let you know if I've gotten her yet. As soon as she starts laying, I will be grafting and making queen cells from her line. 
I'm really interested in pursing how to move around (and ship) the 2 day old queen cell. I had the logistics all worked out for our 2020 state beekeepers meeting that was to be held in my hometown, but Covid nixed that meeting.


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## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

Blueridgebeecompany said:


> Hello,
> 
> Looking to buy some buckfast queens for my apiary and nucs in southern WV. I know weaver in texas has some but have heard they are hot... Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!


A few years ago had the opportunity to buy Fuerguson BUCKFAST queens from Canada. Really like them BUT when they crossed with some of the other bees the outcome was mean and nasty bees.


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## William Bagwell (Sep 4, 2019)

Totally forgot to try last Sunday. Was ready tonight and _think _I just ordered two queens? Let me go through the order processes but at the end showed both as sold out. No order confirmation yet so I'm not sure.

(Edit) Nope, was too slow or something. Just got an email that I had left items in my cart.


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