Selling a nuc.

[Bob Wilson]

Which is better to buy, which is to say, which is better for me to sell...
1. A 5 frame nuc with queen bred in the early spring before honey flow. (A month old)
2. A 5 frame nuc with a queen from the previous spring, come through the winter. (A year old)

[Ben Framed]

Which is better to buy, which is to say, which is better for me to sell...
1. A 5 frame nuc with queen bred in the early spring before honey flow. (A month old)
2. A 5 frame nuc with a queen from the previous spring, come through the winter. (A year old)

Hopefully both the one year, and the one month queen are both good layers. If not neither you nor the customer needs one that isn't. Other than that, a one year well mated producing queen producing gentle hygienic stock should be ok for sale. The one month queen most likely has only been laying for three weeks or less. How is she doing? Does she lay nice patterns? One thing is for sure in my opinion, the customer is depending on you for a good solid proven queen....  I have confidence that you already know this and have every intention of good things for your customer/friend. Congratulations on the sale.

[.30WCF]

I?m not sure it would matter. At least around here, nucs can be hard to find. Wouldn?t most bee keepers have the ability to make their own, and the first time keeper be happy to just get their hands on one?


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[FloridaGardener]

Selling to a new beekeeper is a lot of fun.  Be prepared to spend an average of at least 2 hours answering questions, helping them understand hive components, and putting the bees into their hive.  Even when you give them a checklist, sometimes they don't even bring a ratchet strap and entrance closer.  Often that is 3-4 hours of time for a sale.

Verrrrrry rarely does someone just show up with an appointment [on time], pay $20 extra for a 3/4" plywood 5 frame hive w/ hive block+landing board to carry them, and take them away. 

[.30WCF]

Let me modify my response some. To answer the specific question, in my opinion, the new queen would be easier to reason with someone that they can get more time out of vs having a proven queen that will need to be replaced sooner. I guess if I were buying one today, I?d rather have the younger queen.

[TheHoneyPump]

2 - by far the superior product.
Most nuc buyers are looking for a fast track start to establishing a hive that is stable, well organized, and will launch right in to making them a honey crop. That young queen from last summer will achieve that performance thrice over and lap circles all around the newly mated one.
The experienced buyers, my buyers that line up on the waiting list, want that established stable young queen who was kept in a nuc, overwintered in her nuc, and is super-primed to blow the lid off her new hive this year.
All if my nuc sales are my overwintered 6-8 month old nucs. I will rarely sell younger queen as a nuc until she is at minimum approaching the end of her 2nd brood cycle. In this way I get very very few callbacks about problems.  With new queens, new nucs, those calls can quadruple if the buyers are novice or newbee.
All that said, in the end, whatever the customer wants I guess. Newer has to be better right?  (that has not been my experience). Buyers who insist on that brand new queen .. I pass them along to my competitors, and I move on to the next persons on the waiting list who knows and appreciates what they are getting in a well established nucleus colony. 

Imho

[Ben Framed]

IMHO: Wise words Mr.HoneyPump

[Ben Framed]

Selling to a new beekeeper is a lot of fun.  Be prepared to spend an average of at least 2 hours answering questions, helping them understand hive components, and putting the bees into their hive.  Even when you give them a checklist, sometimes they don't even bring a ratchet strap and entrance closer.  Often that is 3-4 hours of time for a sale.

Verrrrrry rarely does someone just show up with an appointment [on time], pay $20 extra for a 3/4" plywood 5 frame hive w/ hive block+landing board to carry them, and take them away.

That is experience talking.... FloridaGardener, have you sold any nucs using the portable EZ nuc boxes? Anyone else? From what I am gathering, this type box seems to be picking up steam for folks who sell nucs.

[TheHoneyPump]

The EZnuc, coreplast, are ... well ... EZ to work with.  Has all of the features needed for the seller and the buyer.  I use them almost exclusively.  Unless, the buyer drops off their own boxes, which must be pre-sterilized.

[Bob Wilson]

I asked because I am working out procedures in my mind for priming my hives for honey production next spring. When I reduce resources to keep back swarming, and if I pull queens at the beginning of the honey flow to maximize nectar gathering, I will need to sell off the new resulting nucs/and or the prior year's nucs.
1. New queen. I wondered if a brand new queen, full of pheremone, and with a potentially a longer laying life in front of her, might be the standard, expected product.
2. Established queen. However, it seems to me that a proven queen, proven wintered, well mated at the beginning of the honey flow, and strongly laying in early spring, would be a more trustworthy, valuable comodity. It is what I would want, but I wondered about the loss of a year's worth of potential laying to the customer.
I make it my business that people know exactly what they are geting and why I am offering it.
Thanks, as always.

[Brian MCquilkin]

Which is better to buy, which is to say, which is better for me to sell...
1. A 5 frame nuc with queen bred in the early spring before honey flow. (A month old)
2. A 5 frame nuc with a queen from the previous spring, come through the winter. (A year old)

2. Over winter nucs are far better, just seem to build up faster.
I bought 10 from a local supplier this year and have taken 4 splits from them and the original 10have bounced back and have made 4 supers of honey and working on the 5th.
My own over-wintered nucs have out-performed my double-deep overwintered colonies.

[Michael Bush]

Brother Adam said a queen does her best work in her second season.

"The consensus of opinion is in favour of supersedure at or near the close of a queen's second season, and I feel certain that (with few exceptions), owing to the genial winter temperature of Australasia, and the prolonged breeding season, queens are at their best in this part of the world in their second season, and rapidly deteriorate after."--Isaac Hopkins, The Australasian Bee Manual

"In the north exceptional queens do well the second year; but, if a queen does even fair work the third year, it is evident she was not worked as she should have been during the two years previous."--Jay Smith, Queen Rearing Simplified

"In the North if the queen is doing good work the second year she might be allowed to live the third year but as a rule two years is long enough to keep any queen."--Jay Smith, Better Queens

[beesnweeds]

#1 would be my first choice, especially for beginners.  I found that beginners who spend the extra money for overwintered queens usually end up looking at them at the end of a branch 30 feet up.  First year queens are just as productive (sometimes more) than second year queens and  they are less likely to swarm.  Second season queens get replaced often if they dont swarm and some beginners are left scratching their head when they have laying worker or weak hives in the fall.  Almost all my hives go into winter with first year queens.

[TheHoneyPump]

I respectfully disagree with most of that, well pretty much all of it.  I do so recognizing that in beekeeping the hive management methods and experience varies, and thus so does the outcomes.

[Bob Wilson]

I assume you include the cost of the EZ nuc box in the price of the nuc. Who knows if they house some of their own bees in it before bringing it back?

[Ben Framed]

I assume you include the cost of the EZ nuc box in the price of the nuc. Who knows if they house some of their own bees in it before bringing it back?

Bob I have not sold nucs but I may in the future. I would assume when the nuc hive is sold with the EZ nuc box, it is the buyers to keep.  At least they is the way I would think I would go about it. I would probably add the cost of the EZ to the price of the sale. All in one so to speak. I would not ask for the EZ to be returned. I am open to thoughts on this as more thoughts are always welcome. I would be interested in seeing how experienced nuc sellers handle this.

[beesnweeds]

I am open to thoughts on this as more thoughts are always welcome. I would be interested in seeing how experienced nuc sellers handle this.


I use the Pro Nuc that Betterbee sells, easier and more versatile to use than the EZ nuc and you can add a bottle feeder.  They sell most of their nucs in the Pro Nuc.  Of course the price of the box is included with the nuc.

[beesnweeds]

I respectfully disagree with most of that, well pretty much all of it.  I do so recognizing that in beekeeping the hive management methods and experience varies, and thus so does the outcomes.

No problem, one uppers don't bother me at all.

[Ben Framed]

I use the Pro Nuc that Betterbee sells, easier and more versatile to use than the EZ nuc and you can add a bottle feeder.  They sell most of their nucs in the Pro Nuc.  Of course the price of the box is included with the nuc.

Thanks for the tip beesnweeds....I will check these out..

[Ben Framed]

I use the Pro Nuc that Betterbee sells, easier and more versatile to use than the EZ nuc and you can add a bottle feeder.  They sell most of their nucs in the Pro Nuc.  Of course the price of the box is included with the nuc.

Thanks for the tip beesnweeds....I will check these out..

beesnweeds the picture at betterbee did not show the inside of the pro nuc but the outside of the nuc looked very impressive. Thanks