Native British Bees
A 5 frame 14 x 12 (deep national) polystyrene nucleus of native British bees from our own stock with a mated queen for 2021. Also available on Standard National frames
Strong, Native British Stock
Bees & Co. is home to the native British honeybee. Our mother stock is strong, native Apis mellifera mellifera.
With all nuc purchases, we include a £15 discount voucher valid on our Beekeeping for Beginners workshop and a 15% discount voucher for our range of B.J. Sherriff protective beekeeping suits.
Characteristics
Treating organically for varroa, using no chemical miticides, our breeding colonies are selected for varroa resistance. This is achieved by regular monitoring for varroa mite presence in each rearing colony and selecting to breed from only those queens from colonies showing the best mite resistance.
Only two other characteristics are actively bred for, which are calmness in temperament (demonstrated by no active aggression and stinging), and overall health (demonstrated by a balance of brood and food, with good foraging capability and honey production).
BIBBA
As members of BIBBA (the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association), we are keen to encourage beekeepers to use native stock, which has several benefits over common popular, imported stock, such as Buckfast or Carniolan:
- Imported stocks increase biosecurity and environment loading risks, which are of significant concern to organisations such as DEFRA and the wider scientific community.
- Native bees are by their very nature better adapted to their native geographic and environmental challenges. Lincolnshire, where our farm is based, is notoriously flat and exposed to wind.
- Native British Bees actively forage in cold and even wet weather
- We have used and handled Buckfast and Carniolan bees and while native and near-native bees are not as docile as Buckfast, we have not found them to be any more aggressive when handled calmly and properly.
As part of our integrated disease management program, we protect our colonies against varroa organically using oxalic acid sublimation in winter, and in autumn alternating annually between formic acid by evaporation, thymol and oxalic acid.
Availability & Collection
Available for collection from June 2021, we have very limited stocks available each year of nucs as our native bees are in high demand. Nucs must be paid for in full in order to secure them.
Collection near Market Deeping in Lincolnshire – in order to reduce the stress on bees, we do not post nucs.
Bred By Us
Our native British Amm. queens are bred by Jez in our breeding apiary near the farm. Jez has studied under beekeeping luminaries including Professor Thomas Seeley and Roger Patterson, with a keen interest in native queen rearing. He is a member of BIBBA (the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association) and graduates from Cornell University’s Master Beekeeper program in 2020.
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