Those who sell nucs and packages....

[homer]

DISCLAIMER: I am not selling anything here... just asking a question of those who do!

I have become friends with a commercial beekeeper and am going to be supplying his nucs this spring to people in my area, but I'm having a hard time getting people interested in buying them so far.

How do you (those who sell) advertise and get word out that you are selling and get people anxious to start buying?  Is it still just too early for most people to be interested in ordering bees yet?

[iddee]

Your local beek club. Our club assisted members and others purchase over 150 nucs in the spring of 2009. If the local clubs know you have them, you will sell out early.

[TwT]

If the local clubs know you have them, you will sell out early.

yup like said above, also a ad in your states farmers market bulletin help also, here is a few samples, your state should have one also. by using the Ga market bulletin last year I could have sold about 200 nuc's and 200-300 hundred queens if I produced enough and thats just the Ga market bulletin.   

http://www.agr.state.ga.us/mbads/
http://www.florida-agriculture.com/fmb/bees.htm
http://agriculture.sc.gov/

[BjornBee]

I suspect that perhaps Ted may of had a huge demand....because it was....Ted!

Homer,
An informed beekeeper, is also one that knows that there are things that go into buying nucs. You mention a "commercial" beekeeper. Yes, there are good as well as bad ones. But nucs from commercial guys, should raise an eyebrow, and at least a couple flags.

Are these nucs from stressed hives working the migratory circuit? Are the queens of any quality beyond mass produced varieties some bigger boys use? Is the comb guaranteed to be chemical free, less than three years old, and have no past disease problems? Are the nucs from an outfit focused on quality nucs, or one that uses nucs to exchange out old comb while maximizing profit?

Today's beekeepers are better educated, thanks in part to such things as forums.

I agree that if you have bees and have any marketing...they will come!

Just remember that YOUR reputation is riding on the quality of nucs YOU are selling...whether they are yours or someone Else's.

If I can not be guaranteed that they are quality nucs, with good genetics, untainted comb, and that they do not have a disease problem...no matter the price, it is not worth the money to buy nucs.

I encourage beekeepers to visit the nuc producer to see the operation....is this possible? I encourage my own customers to bring their suit and we open every nuc prior to anyone leaving the apiary....is this possible?  They know my history, my beekeeping practices,....is this available to those you are selling nucs? Do they know who they are REALLY buying from?

A real concern, and an issue that many will not touch with a ten foot pole, is the use of crappy foreign queens, and stressed hives being broken down into nucs (and even shaken for packages) after almond season.

So it is a two way street. Beekeepers need to demand and be given the information to make informed decisions, and nuc producers need to honest and upfront. When both of those conditions are met....you will never have enough nucs to sell. ;)

[buzzbee]

That is great advice Mike! :) Especially staking your reputation on someone elses product.

[homer]

Bjorn,

Thanks for all the good information.  I know many things about these nucs and I have no problem at all resting my reputation on them.  And to make it better, I know the reputation of the beekeeper that I will be getting them from.  I have no doubts at all the he will take good care of me.

The nucs will be made after the bees return from the almonds.  New, quality, queens will be introduced into the nucs and they will have about 4-5 weeks to build the nuc box.  He does not sell packaged bees so there is no concern of having stressed bees going into nucs from previous shaking.  All of the nucs will be new equipment so tainted comb and disease issues are at a minimum.

As the beekeeper I will be getting the nucs from is about 4 hours from my location, it's not overly feasible that people purchasing from me will be wanting to travel down to see the operation, but I do intend on opening every box for buyers to inspect before they leave the yard that I will be stationing them at.

Also, I bought bees from this guy last year for myself (full 2 deep production hives) and had a few problems.  He bent over backwards to make sure things were right.  I've been in contact with him a lot and am certain this is going to work out well for people in Northern Utah, as there is NO source for nucs anywhere near here.

[TwT]

I suspect that perhaps Ted may of had a huge demand....because it was....Ted!

Hater  :-P

Are these nucs from stressed hives working the migratory circuit? Are the queens of any quality beyond mass produced varieties some bigger boys use? Is the comb guaranteed to be chemical free, less than three years old, and have no past disease problems? Are the nucs from an outfit focused on quality nucs, or one that uses nucs to exchange out old comb while maximizing profit?

Today's beekeepers are better educated, thanks in part to such things as forums.

I agree that if you have bees and have any marketing...they will come!

Just remember that YOUR reputation is riding on the quality of nucs YOU are selling...whether they are yours or someone Else's.

If I can not be guaranteed that they are quality nucs, with good genetics, untainted comb, and that they do not have a disease problem...no matter the price, it is not worth the money to buy nucs.

I encourage beekeepers to visit the nuc producer to see the operation....is this possible? I encourage my own customers to bring their suit and we open every nuc prior to anyone leaving the apiary....is this possible?  They know my history, my beekeeping practices,....is this available to those you are selling nucs? Do they know who they are REALLY buying from?

a real concern, and an issue that many will not touch with a ten foot pole, is the use of crappy foreign queens, and stressed hives being broken down into nucs (and even shaken for packages) after almond season.

So it is a two way street. Beekeepers need to demand and be given the information to make informed decisions, and nuc producers need to honest and upfront. When both of those conditions are met....you will never have enough nucs to sell. ;)

very well said Mike, I never really thought about it as much as you just covered but have always have and will stand behind my quality of my bee's, since all I do is raise queens and make nuc's my gals hardly have any stress at all (no chemicals either) and I could mass produce many more queens and nuc's but for me a quality queen takes about 3-5 weeks of laying to see if she will be a top notch queen, I could turn and burn and take some of them 200-500 queen in a single order but thats just as soon as she lays a egg she gets shipped out, thats no time to see if she is a quality queen, it does surprise me at time's how many calls a person could get for nuc's and queens, you never really know how many beekeepers are in your area, I lived here 20 years and knew of 4 others and found out they started a bee club here and it has around 50 members (from this area or close too) and some of these people have 10-25 hives each but most have just one or two hives, I never knew that, people just across the border in SC I found out the last 2 years there are about 25 people over there ordered queens/nuc's from me or Dwight. I am the only one with in about 100 miles that sell's queens and nuc's (most are in south Ga). This is going to be a expanding year for me and Dwight (joint operation), Dwight lives about 2 hour drive north but has a couple Russian yards here near my place and he gets a head start queen rearing here (about a month head start from his place) we are going to fill all the equipment we each have and not sell that much, Dwight already has orders for a little over 100 nuc's and about 100 queens since the first week in December, I am only going to sell about 25-30 nuc's and 20-30 queens this year to a few old customers and club members, I have about 75 hives to fill and about 40 nuc's I want to winter this year so I am going to work on getting these hives filled and ready for the winter, I might sell some fall queens but you never know how the weather is going to effect queen rearing.

[homer]

What time of year do most of you that sell bees, sell out of what you have available?

[Jim134]

What time of year do most of you that sell bees, sell out of what you have available?

In Ma. about end of Jan. for sell out for nucs or packages

 

    BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)

[fish_stix]

TwT; are you or Dwight handling purebred Russian queens? PM if you'd like.