Chesapeake Honey Nucs       $200

(Available late April - July, Limited Supply)

Each nuc will contain 5 frames covered in adult bees, a laying queen, at least 2 frames of brood in all stages of development and at least 2 frames of pollen and nectar/honey.  Contact Jeff at 443-766-9932 or chesapeakehoney17@gmail.com.

Honey bee nucleus colonies:

To start a honey bee hive you have three options, catch a swarm of bees, buy a package of bees, or buy a nucleus (see below).  A nucleus or “nuc” consists of 4-5 frames covered in adult bees and the five frames contain will contain young developing bees (brood) and food (pollen and honey or nectar).  A normal 5-frame nuc will have two frames of brood, capped brood and open brood and two frames of pollen and nectar/honey.  The final 5th frame can be open honey comb to allow the queen to lay in or some mixture of brood, pollen and nectar.  Finally, the nuc contains an activily laying queen.  This combination of adult bees, a queen and a mixture of brood and food make up the nuc or nucleus colony.   A starter colony that will grow rapidly when placed in a larger full-size hive.

Package bees:

Package bees are a group of 2-3 lbs (about 8-10,000 bees) of adult bees and a mated queen in a cage.  These packages are produced in the spring in the Southern US and shipped north to help beekeepers replace dead hives in the spring.  A package is just adult bees and a queen and a can of sugar syrup to keep them fed during shipment. The package of bees is then “shaken” into a hive in its new location and the queen in her cage is placed with the bees inside the hive and the end of the cage is opened where a plug of candy is exposed that the bees will eat and release the queen in 1-3 days.  Package bees are normally fed syrup for a few weeks to help them establish and or build new comb in the new hive.

Nucs vs Package bees:  A nuc will always build up faster than a package because it has 2-3 frames of young developing bees called brood.  A package by contrast must start from zero to raise new brood from the eggs that the queen begins to lay in the hive after she is released from the cage. A nuc will cost $200+ and a package $130+.  Thus, you have a choice.  A nuc that cost more but will build up much faster or a package that takes more time to grow.  Lastly, because the queen in the nuc is already accepted and laying she is unlikely to fail in the first year.  In a package, the queen must be accepted by the 10,000 package bees and begin to lay eggs in the new hive. This can lead to queen failure as she may be rejected by the bees and or fail to start laying once released.