Reserve your spring 2025 nucleus colony from Duck River Honey Company.
Reservations will be capped to ensure I have enough to satisfy commitments. If the spring is a good one I may have extras to sell after reservations are picked up.
Total price is $225 per nuc. This deposit reserves your nuc and the deposit will apply to your total at pickup. Deposits are non-refundable.
Learn more about our operation through our YouTube Channel - Duck River Honey Company YouTube Channel
What You're Buying:
- New 2025 marked queen reared by me from my stock in Duck River, TN.
- Nucleus Colony is housed in 10 frame medium equipment. You will receive:
- 10 frame bottom board
- 10 frame medium box
- 10 medium frames. 7 to 8 drawn with bee coverage, 2 new frames with foundation.
- 10 frame migratory top lid.
Advantages of our Nuc System:
Most nucleus colonies in the industry are sold as five frame deeps in a plastic jester nuc box.
The advantages of our system are:
- It is easier to grow your nuc into a hive because the box they are in is already usable as a brood box.
- You're getting good quality woodenware instead of a plastic 5 frame box.
Five deep frames equates to 7.5 medium frames in comb area. Our 10 frame medium system with at least 8 frames of bee coverage is a little bigger than the industry standard nuc.
It is also much simpler to grow your nuc into an all medium hive, or into a deep hive.
If you want to manage your hive in all medium equipment (my personal favorite), simply place a second 10 frame medium box of foundation on top of your nuc and feed the colony. The bees will expand upward into the second box and start drawing wax.
If you prefer to run deep brood boxes, then place a deep box on top and grow the nuc into deep equipment. If you leave the medium on the bottom of the hive you can retrieve it around February of the following year and the comb will be completely empty. Then reuse the box and comb as a honey super.
The only disadvantage is if you want to run your colony in 8 frame equipment. In that case the bottom board, box, and top lid that I supply will not match your desired equipment. The frames of course could be moved into 8 frame medium boxes.
About Our Bees:
I breed for performance, not looks. My stock has contributions from Italian, Caucasian, Russian, and feral genetics. My breeding program selects for varroa mite resistance, gentleness, productivity, and overall survivability.
- Productivity:
- My breeder queens were generally born two years ago. In their first season they built a nuc up to a full strength colony and then survived winter. In year two they made a honey crop and then survived their second winter.
- Gentleness:
- In addition to this, hives must be gentle. I work bees with a veil and smoker but without gloves. I only breed from colonies that are very workable.
- Mite Resistance:
- Queens must also have consistently low varroa mite numbers over thier lives in order to be considered for my breeding program. I have brought in Varroa Sensitive Hygienic (VSH) stock from broodstock producers, and I am actively testing and selecting breeder queens that exhibit mite resistance.
- Note that there is no such thing as a "mite-proof" bee. I select for varroa resistance, and do have those traits in my stock. But I still need to treat some hives to improve their chances of survival. The benefits of selecting for varroa resistance are that I generally treat less, less often, and use less harsh chemicals than many other operations. To date, I only treat my bees with Oxalic Acid, a natural organic acid found in leafy greens. My stock thrives within my management, but they may or may not thrive under different management.
Timeframe:
I expect to begin having nucs ready for pickup in the first week of May. This is weather dependent. In normal years I can start rearing new queens in late March and making nucs around the last week of March or first week of April. If spring weather is slower or faster it will change my expected delivery schedule. You will be contacted via email to confirm pickup.
Pickup will be on a Saturday in Hickman County, TN (30 minutes from Dickson exit on I-40). Other times can be accomodated by request only.