VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygienic) and

Italian/Carniolan Cross 5-Frame Nucs

$ TBD for 2025 season (Payment by Cash, Check, or

Money Order)

$ TBD for 2025 season (Payment by Credit Card)

Please see below for the descriptions and common traits of the available types of bees.

We are now offering queen marking for $10 on a limited number of nucs on each load. Due to the additional time and rechecks needed when marking queens. NUCs with marked queens will not be available until the 2nd pickup day for each load.

Each nuc is inspected by the producers before shipping. We re-inspect each nuc before you pick it up to ensure it meets our quality standards. We schedule nuc pickups in the early morning or late evening so the nucs can be closed up when the foragers are all back at the hive, and the nucs can travel to their new home in the coolest part of the day.
To place an order, please give us a call at (660) 214-0132. If you have ordered from us before and your contact information has not changed, you may place your order by email.
Orders are not confirmed until payment is received. Bees are the only item that requires pre-payment. You will not get a refund if you fail to pick up your bees.

We schedule a free hands-on familiarization class one evening during the pickups days for each nuc load. We schedule the class on the best forecasted weather night. *This class is a supplement to, not a replacement for, a beginner's beekeeping class.

3 LBS. PACKAGES: Italian, Carniolan, and BUCKFAST

$TBD for 2025 Season(Payment by Cash, Check, or Money Order),

$TBD for 2025 Season (Payment by Credit Card)

Please see below for the descriptions and common traits of the available types of bees.

We plan to have Italian, Carniolan, and Buckfast packages available again this year. Packaged bee arrival is usually planned for early April if the weather allows. We have used this supplier for several years and the bees have always arrived in great shape on climate-controlled trucks. We will note everyone's preference for either Italians or Carniolans, but we can not guarantee which you will receive. Most years we are able to get everyone, except the very late orders, their preference. The supplier has said getting enough Buckfast bees to cover all orders should not be a problem. Buckfast bees are known for rapid spring buildup and are always ready to ship, even on the earliest loads.

To place an order, please give us a call at (660) 214-0132. If you have ordered from us before and your contact information has not changed, you may place your order by email.
Orders are not confirmed until payment is received. Bees are the only item that requires pre-payment. You will not get a refund if you fail to pick up your bees.

VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygienic)

and

Italian/Carniolan Cross Starter Kits

(5-Frame nucs installed

in new equipment)

$TBD for 2025 Season (Payment by Cash, Check, or Money Order), $TBD for 2025 Season (Payment by Credit Card)

Starter nucs will include a new wax dipped deluxe bottom board, a new deep wax dipped hive body, 5 new assembled frames with foundation (the other 5 will be from the nuc), a new reversible notched inner cover, a new deluxe telescoping cover, a ratchet strap for transport, and a 5-frame nuc already installed in the equipment. This is a great option, if you may need a few extra days to pick up your bees. See our "Bee and Hive Kit Specials page" if you need a complete hive kit or a complete beginner's kit.

Please see below for the descriptions and common traits of the available types of bees.

We are now offering queen marking for $10 on a limited number of nucs on each load. Due to the additional time and rechecks needed when marking queens. NUCs with marked queens will not be available until the 2nd pickup day for each load.

To place an order, please give us a call at (660) 214-0132. If you have ordered from us before and your contact information has not changed, you may place your order by email.

Orders are not confirmed until payment is received. Bees are the only item that requires pre-payment. You will not get a refund if you fail to pick up your bees.

We schedule a free hands-on familiarization class one evening during the pickups days for each nuc load. We schedule the class on the best forecasted weather night. *This class is a supplement to, not a replacement for, a beginner's beekeeping class.

Options for Queens

1. We order in a few extra queens with our load of packaged bees each year. These queens ride in the cab with the drivers and arrive in much better shape than those shipped in the mail. 2025 price TBD

2. We plan to raise a few queens from our best queens this year. These queens will not be available until late May or June.

3. We keep a list of queen breeders in our area. If we don't have any available, we will help you find someone who does.

2025 Started Kits will be wax-dipped instead of painted as shown in this picture. Wax dipping preserves the wood longer and is lower maintenance than painting.

Bee Type Descriptions and Common Traits

VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygienic)

We are excited this year to be able to offer VSH Nucs. The queens in these nucs will be the F1 (first generation) daughters of a artificially inseminated VSH breeder queens. The breeder queens are tested by the queen breeder to insure VSH traits.

Varroa Sensitive Hygienic honey bees are specially bred for their natural resistance to Varroa mites, the number one cause of hive loss. These bees detect and remove Varroa mite-infested brood cells, promoting hive health and reducing the need for chemical treatments. Their resistance leads to stronger, more productive hives and sustainable beekeeping practices. Although VSH nucs are much better at controlling mite populations, testing for varroa mites and treating, if needed, is still recommended.

Our personal experience with VSH bees: We have been very happy with the VSH hives we currently have in our own bee yards and will be adding more VSH stock this year. Their mite counts are lower and sometimes zero. We have also found them to be good honey producers.

Italian/Carniolan Cross

Our Italian/Carniolan Cross NUCs should arrive in early May. This cross has been a favorite with many of our customers over the last several years. The cross has the gentle nature that is common to both Italians and Carniolans. They are good honey producers. The weather is usually improving with a better nectar flow when this load arrives. This can be an advantage if you are starting brand new hives.

Our personal experience with Italian/Carniolan Cross bees: I have enjoyed working with these crosses. They are gentle, productive, and hardy. The queens we have had tend to stay productive longer than others.

Italians

Italian bees are known for their gentle and docile temperament, making them a popular choice for beekeepers. They tend to be less aggressive and are generally easy to work with. Italian bees are also excellent honey producers. They have a strong foraging instinct leading to high honey yields for beekeepers. Italian queens are also known for their prolific egg-laying, resulting in a large population of worker bees.

Our personal experience with Italian bees: Italians are almost always easy to work with. I like to use Italian bees to make nucs as they tend to be more accepting of new queens. They over winter in a larger cluster so are useful for early spring pollination, but with that large population you need to be prepared to feed them if spring comes late. As with other types you do need to monitor their varroa mite levels as high brood production can lead to higher varroa mite numbers.

Carniolans

Carniolan bees are prized for their gentle and non-aggressive behavior. Carniolan queens are known for their ability to increase egg-laying and brood production quickly in response to nectar and pollen availability. This trait allows colonies to grow rapidly during favorable conditions..

Carniolans are also considered more frugal with their winter stores, meaning they tend to consume less honey during the winter months. Carniolan colonies are known for their excellent ability to overwinter successfully in cold or variable climates.

Carniolan bees tend to swarm less frequently than others making them more suitable for beekeepers who want to minimize colony losses due to swarming.

Our personal experience with Carniolan bees: Carniolans are easy to work with. They are very conservative with their winter stores and overwinter in a smaller cluster. In the spring I often find them still in the bottom box with an almost full deep of honey on top.

Buckfast

Buckfast bees were developed by Brother Adam at Buckfast Abbey in the United Kingdom. These bees are known for being extremely docile and easy to work with. Quote from one of last years customers: "They won't even look at you". Brother Adam selectively bred Buckfast bees for resistance to Tracheal mites. Buckfast bees may also show resistance to some honey bee diseases.

Buckfast queens are prolific egg layers, which results in strong colonies with large populations of worker bees. They also have a very low tendency to swarm. These traits help make them very good honey producers.

Our personal experience with Buckfast bees: They are very calm. The picture above is of a colony that I started in the spring of 2023 with a small split and a Buckfast queen. They produced the same amount in the 2024 season. Another Buckfast queen I used to replace a failing queen in 2023 also did well, but not to this extreme.

* All the bee frame pictures in the Bee Type Section have a queen in them. Can you find them?