Yesterday I thought I had sold out of hives. Well I had someone want to change his order and decrease it by one hive. That means it isn't too late to start beekeeping. The one that canceled was actually a nucleus hive. I wasn't going to sell these until next year, but this individual wanted three of them instead of the packages of bees. I can swap either one out of my hives so you can choose. A hive with the package of bees will be $300 (all the wooden ware and a 3# package of Italian bees) or the nucleus hive will be $350 (all the wooden ware, 5 frame nuc of bees, wooden nuc box, and a division feeder). Both types will have a Cordovan Italian Queen.
The difference between a package and a nucleus:
Let's start with the package. This is probably the most common way people get started. It is less expensive, you can get the bees a littler earlier, and if people plan to have them shipped this is the way to do it. I don't ship so the last point really isn't valid for people around here. Some disadvantages are sometimes they don't take to the new queen. A package is 3 pounds of bees shaken from different hives and placed with a foreign queen. Generally they do accept the queen as their own after a few days, but there is a risk. Some times the queens are not as prolific as you would like and get superseded in the same year. This will slow down the progress of the hive. A package of bees mimics a swarm, and the bees are generally in a hyper growth mode and will build out new foundations rather quickly. The downside is the bees only live about 6 weeks this time of year and the population will start to decrease until the first brood emerge around day 24 after the queen has been laying. At this point the population should start to really build. Here is a video of one way to install a package of bees. This is done by Chad Ragland from Apis hive and he does a really good job demonstrating it. Package Install
Nucleus hives, are in my opinion the safest way to start a hive. I will start with the negatives first because there aren't many. Nucleus hives cost a little more because you usually have more work invested in them from a suppliers standpoint. Their is a slightly higher chance of passing disease if the supplier isn't careful. Typically if the supplier uses newer foundation, pulls from a healthy hive, and breaks the brood cycle, you wont have to worry about most diseases and mites. The advantages of a nucleus are great. When you get a nucleus hive typically it is 4 to 5 frames and should be full of bees. You often have the opportunity to to inspect the nuc before taking it and make sure you approve of the brood pattern. When you get the bees they will be increasing rapidly because they will have all stages of brood. This tends to result in more honey that can be harvested in the first year. It is a little less intimidating for a new beekeeper because you don't have to pound and shake the bees out of the package, all you do is transfer the frames into your new hive. I do highly recommend nucs, but they do cost a little more. The success rate of a nuc is a lot higher because the supplier takes on the risk of making sure it is good and ready for sale. Here is a quick video of a common way to make nucs. Nuc video
A quick note on the Cordovan Italian queen. These queens are beautiful. All queens are pretty amazing, but the Cordovan queens do stand out when you see them. They are a very light golden color and often don't have any black strips. Their offspring often do have a little dark on them so the queen really stands out among her offspring. These queens are generally very prolific, gentle, good hygienic, and a good honey producers. This breed does very well in our climate.
Hope that helps. We are down to about 6 or 7 weeks until bees start coming.
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