Nucleus of Near-Native British Honeybees (National) 2024 Mated Queen

£210.00 inc VAT

Availability: Out of stock

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Native British Bees

A 5 frame National nucleus of native British bees from our own stock with a mated queen for 2022. Also available on 14×12 Frames

Nucs include 2 frames of food stores, 2 frames of eggs and brood in all stages and 1 frame of drawn foundation; a mated and marked native queen for 2022;  Standard national correx travel nuc for you to keep (ideal for collecting swarms).

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 for our range of B.B Wear 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 2022, 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 from Stamford 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 us in our breeding apiary in Lincolnshire at the Beautiful Burghley Estate. We have studied under beekeeping luminaries and have a keen interest in native queen rearing. We are members of BIBBA (the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association) and regular teach beekeeping in Lincolnshire and London.

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