My husband, Richard, and I first began keeping honey bees back in the early 1980s and today often have small numbers of very good quality native or very near native black / dark honey bees for sale. 

We have carefully bred these bees to be very gentle and hardworking and usually work them in good weather without smoke or gloves. We are very proud of how our efforts have paid off and also that we are trying hard to continue the existence of our only native honey bee in as pure a form as possible. 

They are normally sold as nucs (nucleus colonies) on five frames with ample stores, a laying queen and brood in all stages - that's eggs, larvae and sealed brood and they should be placed in a full British National (or WBC) hive very soon after collecting them from us as they will expand rapidly. 

We've put the price of the nucleus colonies here but please do contact us before placing your deposit to make certain we will have some available and to allow us to reserve one or more for you..

Two prices are shown:

1. Nucs with a last year's queen. These are proven layers of gentle workers and have also proven they can take a colony through a winter - normally available late April through early May on and . . .
   
2. Nucs with a this year's queen. Though younger they are, of course, less proven although if we have any doubts at all we don't include her. Availability of these is very dependent on the weather and successful matings but would be later than overwintered queens.

A non-returnable deposit will need to be placed to hold each colony for you for a length of time to be agreed by us, and you would need to collect from our pick up point on a date and at a time convenient to us. Details will be given for both options. 

* As an example - you would need to place a deposit of £100 per colony ordered with a further payment of £99 per colony to be made before collection - the deposits being non-refundable.

**These figures are an example only and are subject to change without notice. 

Colonies are normally supplied in a reusable and very useful Corex style 'plastic' five frame nuc box (or similar) which is yours to keep and will be a great backup for you for years to come. 

These boxes are really quite durable and great for housing swarms or, as we tend to use them at every inspection, to hold two or three frames from a brood box to allow us more space when carrying out our routine hive inspections. The ones we are using as still good after years of heavy use.

Please feel free to use the Contact Form at the bottom of this page for any queries or questions and I or Richard will be pleased to answer.