When Will The Nucs Be Ready?

CAUTION: Producing Nucs Is NOT An Exact Science
(particularly here in our northern climate)

2024 PA-Overwintered Deep Nucs with 2024 PA overwintered queens
We do not know exactly when the first nucs will be ready.

​Overwintered nucs need time to build up their numbers before we will release them.  Generally in our area that will be mid to end of April but some years it may be later.  The weather plays a huge part in this which is something none of us can control. In 2020 it was earlier because of the mild winter.  We can not guarantee the same will occur from year to year.

2025 Nucs produced from our PA-Overwintered stock
​The 2025 nucs that are produced from our overwintered stock, the general rule of thumb is to assume early June. Depending where your order is in our fulfillment list (determined by receipt of order & payment) your nucs can be ready any time between June or even early July.  Again, this is weather dependent.

Our first nucs in 2015 were not available until the 2nd week of June due to the brutal/late winter weather. In 2016, the cool and rainy weather put all producers 6 to 8 weeks behind schedule. We can not rush the process of mother nature. We wait until we have sufficient build-up of bees for splitting and see plenty of drones to give the queens the best chance of being as well-mated, as possible, before we begin producing queens. High quantity drone brood in 2015 was not seen until early May.

With the 2025 Nucs, when we are satisfied with the new queen's laying pattern and production we will begin to release the nucs. As with everything else, this varies by queen, colony and weather.

We know that people are anxious for their bees, however, we can't jeopardize the quality of the product that you are paying good money for just to be able to deliver the nucs earlier. 

If you don't feel that you can or don't want to wait that long for your bees, then perhaps northern-produced nucs are not the way to go for you.