I hate to be a curmudgeon (can you be one of those at 44 years of age?), but I have to whine about something that I encountered tonight. It is more evidence to me that you have to be really careful when buying your bees.

I attended the Richmond Beekeeper’s Association tonight to listen to some talks by 1st year beekeepers and a discussion about mentoring the new beekeepers. During the conversation, someone mentioned a deal that they organize for new packages in the Spring. Effectively, someone collects the orders and picks up a huge load of packages to be delivered to members of the club. All well and good.

In the process, someone (not me, although I do agree with this philosophy) mentioned Nuc’s and how they can be more expensive, but you’re getting local bees that have lived in the area. This is really only one of many reasons, but that was the reason mentioned (and it happens to be the primary reason that I purchase Nuc’s when I am in the purchasing mode). They subsequently mentioned a gentleman who might have Nuc’s available for sale this year. I have had a couple of folks who read the blog contact me about Nuc’s, so I wanted to check this guy out. As mentioned last Summer, I was not at all pleased with the Nuc’s that I received from my bee supplier in Varina and no longer recommend the fellow. I was hoping to find another good source that I could recommend.

As we started talking, I asked him about how he manages his bees. He looked at me quizzically (in retrospect, that was a dumb question to ask) and I explained that I wanted to know if he used chemicals and which ones he used. That was the real question that I wanted answered, but I was a bit off my game after my initial vague question, and went on to mumble several other questions so as not to seem like I was some nut who was going to harangue him for using chemicals on his bees. One question (which I assumed that I already knew the answer to) was “and, for example, how do you choose which of your queens you raise Nuc queens off of, how long have these queen lines been in the area, etc…’ Much to my surprise, he immediately stopped me and shook his head. “I don’t use my own queens. I order my queens from Georgia and put them in my own bees.” I have to say that this is one of the last things I expected to hear.

Now, to his defense, he is getting bees ready far in advance of regular Nuc’s. He’ll probably have his ready at the end of March (most local Nuc’s won’t be ready until May). In addition, he should have a queen that has already been accepted by the bees (you can’t guarantee this with a package.) But, after a couple of months, you basically have a bunch of bees from Georgia. The whole genetics of this Nuc turn to ‘non-local’ right off the bat (well, with a couple of months anyway…) My beef with this is that many (if not most) folks recommend Nuc’s because you are getting local bees. And by ‘bees’, they mean the queen too!

Again, I feel like a whiner, but I can say that this is not what I mean when I say ‘Nuc’. It is another example of ‘buyer beware’ when it comes to purchasing Nuc’s.