Norfolk Honey - Bees
Honeybees in Norfolk
Norfolk's mongrel bees
Norfolk Mongrels - bees that are bred in the open in Norfolk with no
control of what drones the virgins mate with - are generally what most Norfolk
beekeepers keep. However, some beekeepers do import queens from other parts
of the UK and the continent. As the drones from imported queens are available to mate in
uncontrolled conditions the genetic mix of our Norfolk Mongrel Bees is constantly
and subtly changing.
It follows that Norfolk Mongrels from one Norfolk bee keeper will not be same
as Norfolk Mongrels from another Norfolk beekeeper. Generally we take the female
line as our guide to the strain of bee. There is a colour difference between
strains. The lighter the bees the more Italian blood they are likely to have.
If they are gray bees then they may be from a Carniolan queen originally. Many
of the UK's stock of bees come from Brother Adam's Buckfast strain.
But whatever the mother once mated in the wild the resulting bees can all be described as Mongrels.
Bees for sale - Norfolk Mongrels
You can buy Norfolk Mongrel bees from us in April, May, June, July, August,
September and October and even in the winter. In April and May we sell nucs with
the previous year's queen. From June to September the nucs and colonies will have new current year queens. Once
we get towards the end of July we stop selling nucs but have full colonies for sale. Most of our prices change from year to year so please email us for our current prices.
Beginners offer
To get started in bee keeping you need hives and bees - we offer both in
a package -- click here to read more
Bees in second hand hives
We have bees in second hand hives for sale from August to April -- click
here to read more
Nucs for sale
We have nucs for sale from the last week in April (old queens) through
to the middle of July (new queens) that we make up to order and that you can
collect from Norwich.
We supply nucs in five different types of box:
Plywood traveling boxes made up new for the purpose with bees on five Hoffman
frames - fine for local pickups.
Brood boxes with a complete set of twelve Hoffman frames - these will travel
a long distance when attached to an open mesh floor and can be a good choice
for beginners who haven't yet bought a hive.
Polystyrene traveling boxes that can have feed in to help
the bees survive a journey - we use these for our bees that are delivered
by carrier or that
are
going
on very long journeys -- click
here to see a photograph of a polystyrene nuc
Top bar nuc boxes - please give us plenty of notice if you want bees for a
top bar hive.
Warre sections - again a couple of weeks noticed is required
for us to do a shook swarm.
All queens are marked unless requested otherwise.
All our bees are supplied on Standard British National frames with exception
of Ken's bees for top bar hives and our shook swarms for Warre hives.
Bees delivered
We do send bees by carrier during May, June and July -- click here to read
more
Queen bees for sale
We are not queen breeders in a controlled sense, so we don't generally
sell new mated queen's on their own. However, we do often have
some old queens available if you can collect them from us here in Norwich
-- click here to read
more
Please email us for further
information and prices.