Norfolk Honey - Honey Bees for sale

Honey bees and bee hives for sale

Bees for sale

I have a selection of different types of bees. Some queens I have bought in to breed from over the years. But many of my bees come from swarms that I have collected in and around Norwich. I keep the swarms I collect and the best I use to breed queens from the following year. I also buy bees from East Anglian bee keepers and breed from those.

Whatever the pedigree of the stock originally all of the bees that have been mated in my Norfolk apiaries can be best described as Norfolk mongrels.

The easiest way to buy for beginners

If you are starting out and taking up beekeeping for the first time you will not only need bees but a beehive to keep them in as well.

I assemble Standard National bee hives and supply them with bees at the start of the beekeeping season (April) and throughout the months of May and June. My basic offer is a brood box complete with a made up set of brood frames. Four of the brood frames will taken from one of my hives and have a laying queen, worker bees, brood, and stores.

Together with the new brood box is an open mesh floor and crown board. I fix all three together in order to make them easy to put into the boot of a car. The open mesh floor and the unused space inside the hives give the bees plenty of air so that they can breath easily whilst traveling.

Brood box with crown board and attached traveling floor.

With the addition of a few old pillows and blankets in the boot of your car to prevent the box from moving around bees will travel quite easily by car in a brood box. Several boxes of bees traveled from Norwich to various parts of the UK very successfully this way last year.

Some people find that whilst buying the brood box and the bees they may as well buy the supers, suits and associated beekeeping kit as well. Please email me for further details and prices.

A nucleus of bees (on British Standard National brood frames)

I offer nucs for sale in April, May and June.

Buying a nuc of bees in the spring has the advantage in that you know your bees have been strong enough to survive a winter and you are therefore very likely to get a good crop of honey from your bees before the season is done. If you buy a strong nuc of bees in April/May and feed it up you may be able to 'split' (please explain 'split') your hive into two in June and take honey from both hives by the end of the season and have two colonies to take through the winter.

There is only one drawback in buying a queen bred in the previous year and that is that there is more likelyhood that your bees may decide to swarm. (you may need advice on queen rearing as a method of swarm control) A queen bred in the year you collect your bees is less likely to swarm. These will be ready in June/July.

Please email me for current prices of nucs.

If you wish to buy new made up brood frames I charge £2.50 per frame (twelve frames in a brood box).

If you wish to buy the brood box as well that will cost £30 made up

A complete brood box including frames costs £60
(please email me for current prices of the bees).
If you need a hive floor it's £30 (made up),
a crown board is £10 ,
queen excluder £10
and a roof £35 (made up) --- see my labeled hive parts photograph

Buying a 'Nuc'

A nuc of bees consists of several frames of bees removed from the brood box. These frames can then be put into a new brood box to set up a new hive. It is essential that a laying queen bee is on one of the frames when the frames are moved. The other frames should consist of healthy brood and stores.

I sell nucs from around the middle/end of April (last year's queen) and the end of May beginning of June (new queens)

A nuc costs (please email me for current prices) for the bees and £50 for a Nucleus Box to put them in (if one is required). You can supply your own new nuc box and I will swap one of my boxes for yours if it is new and hasn't had bees in before.

I sell nucs April, May, June.

The equipment you need - see photographs

To get started in beekeeping you need:- a hive base with entrance block, a brood box with made up brood frames, a queen excluder on top of the brood box, several supers and frames, a crown board on top of the supers, and finally a roof on top.

If you wish, you can buy a new brood box, entrance block, base, and a crown board from me, in which case I will put the nuc into your new brood box for you and block the entrance in the evening after the bees have stopped flying. Later that same evening (or first thing the next morning) you can take the brood box away with the bees in all strapped down and secured (please email me for current prices).

If you wish me to set everything up with brand new equipment I can do that.

The complete hive will cost £180+ (please email me for current prices).
Extra supers complete with made up frames cost £55 each.
If you have no equipment at all and are starting from scratch you will need three or four supers and a roof on top. (roofs £35 made up).

BUY THE WORKS - A NEW HIVE MADE UP COMPLETE WITH A LAYING QUEEN AND BEES PLUS 3 SUPERS MADE UP READY FOR HONEY PRODUCTION -- See photographs

Bees (with queen) on 4 frames in a brood box with 12 brood frames on a base with queen excluder and crown board, plus three supers with nine made up frames in each super and a made up lid - £450+ (please email me for current prices) and I will deliver them to you if you are within 50 miles or so of Norwich. (£50)

Nucs can also be collected in new nuc boxes (£50) that I make to order.