5 Frame Nuc

We're now taking pre-orders for the upcoming 2025 Spring season for our 5 frame nucs. Each nuc will come with 3 frames of mixed brood (some capped and uncapped broad), 2 frames of food, bees and a laying queen grafted from our Cory Stevens VSH mite-resistant queen stock in a Jester nuc box. "VSH" stands for varrao sensitive hygene. We only graft from our highest scoring queens using the newly developed UBeeO assay tool. The queen in your nuc will be a 21 to 24 day laying queen. This gives us enough time to evaulate the queen and determine if she will be a good laying queen for you.  

Availability:

Weather and the daily temperatures during the early part of spring in our area plays an important role as to when our nucs will be ready for you to pickup. The inital target pickup date will be the first of May. If this pickup date needs to changed because of factors that are out of our control then, you will be contacted of when the new pickup date will be. 

Payment:

To reserve your nuc, you can pay in full with a credit/debit card at the time of checkout or choose to pay on the day of pickup by selecting "Cash On Delivery". 

Shipping:

We do not ship our nucs and will need to be picked up from our shop. During checkout, please select the "Local Pickup" option only. Pickup time will start at 6am and end by 11am on the day of pickup. I will notify you of when your pickup date will be 2 weeks in advance so you can be prepared to pick them up and place in your hive(s). It is highly recommended, especially, if you're driving a long distrance to make sure your nucs do not overheat. So, when you pick them up do not stop off and delay your return to your house. Also, if you can keep cool air circulating around the nuc that will help the bees from overheating and loosing the hive as your traveling home. 

After getting your nuc hive home, it is recommended to place the nuc on top of the hive they will eventually be transferred over into for one day. Open the nuc up so the bees can start to fly and acclimate themselves to their new location. On day 2, transfer the frames from the nuc into your new hive.

Here's how to transfer your nuc into your new hive:

1. Remove all the frames from the new hive
2. Remove one of the outside food frames in the nuc hive. Place this frame to the outside of the new hive for now.  This will make more room to remove the 3 center frames from the nuc.
3. Place the 3 center frames from the nuc into the center of the new hive
4. Put a frame of foundation on each side of the 3 center frames.
5. Put the other food frame in the nuc hive into the new hive beside one of the foundation frames. Move the first food frame you already placed in the nuc hive against the other foundation frame. 
6. Put the remaining foundation frames into the hive and feed the hive 1.5:1 or 1:1 sugar water. This will help stimulate the bees to draw wax out on the foundation frames and provide feed for the bees until the nectar flow starts in your area.