Nucleus hives are commonly known as a nucs. (pronounced newks).
A nucleus hive consists of four full depth Langstroth frames of brood, honey and pollen with a locally raised mated queen. The queen is hatched in the nucleus from one of our carefully grafted queen cells, mated with local drones and then allowed to develop and display a good brood laying pattern prior to sale. Mt. Coramba Apiculture produce our nucs in the Orara Valley, northern NSW, from start to finish and as a result we have full control over the process. For this reason our bee nucs are far superior to any package bees available on the market.
Orara Valley Honey take care to ensure that every bee nuc for sale is strong and healthy. We estimate that our four frame nucs contain from 5000 to 8000 bees and a robust healthy queen.
Orara Valley Honey grow our nucleus hives in six frame full depth brood boxes. This gives us the time to check that the queen is suitable and as a result we can carefully asses the bees to ensure that they are docile and easy to work. Furthermore we can also select the four best frames for you and use the balance in our own hives. Care is taken to observe the nucleus hive for any signs of disease prior to sale. The use of foundation is kept to a minimum and most of our frames are naturally drawn comb.
Mt. Coramba Apiculture encourages responsible beekeeping and we follow The Australian Honeybee Industry Biosecurity Code of Practice.
At Mt. Coramba Apiculture we do not use any form of chemical control for small hive beetle. Our small hive beetle control consists of maintaining strong hives without too much empty space for beetles to take hold in. Good colony management is the key to beetle control. In fact we don’t use any of the common forms of beetle control such as oil or diatomaceous earth filled traps. The majority of our hives have screened bottom boards.
We don’t take orders for our nucleus hives. The production of nucleus hives is time consuming. Weather conditions and the availability of reliable sources of pollen and nectar directly influence our ability to produce good bees. Subsequently we take our time with them and advertise them when they are ready on our Mt. Coramba Apiculture Facebook site. Demand for nucleus hives far exceeds supply because of the renewed interest in beekeeping. We don’t cut corners and as a result our nucs are highly sought after.
Our 2018/2019 price will be $165.00 for a four frame nucleus hive. The price covers the bees and the frames only. We do not supply a box.
Most definitely yes. You are welcome to visit our house apiary at 235 Morrow’s Road, Nana Glen any time by appointment. We frequently give our time freely to speak to new beekeepers about beekeeping in general and inspect a few hives so that you can decide if beekeeping is for you. Alternatively for new customers it is our preference to install the nucleus hive into your hive at your apiary.
Yes. Mt. Coramba Apiculture encourages responsible beekeeping consequently we never sell hives to unregistered beekeepers. We will insist on sighting you registration paperwork prior to unloading your bees. We maintain records of all bee movements. In New South Wales new beekeepers can register online.
Our preferred method to transfer your bees is to close up the nucleus hive prior to sunrise and then move them to the new site within a few hours after daylight. The nucleus hive is then opened up so that the bees can fly while the frames and bees are transferred into their permanent home. Our nucleus hives are ventilated so that the bees remain cool and stress free.
Alternatively you can leave a hive at our apiary and we will place the bees into your gear onsite ready for you to collect when convenient. Once again we can close the hive up before sunrise so that you can transport them to their permanent home within a few hours of sunrise. Bees will tolerate being closed up for a few hours however you must ensure that your equipment has some sort of ventilation such as a ventilated entrance closure and a vented migratory lid.
Never lock your bees up for a few days when you move them. You will kill them.
Should you need assistance or information on installing a nuc hive we can show you how to transfer bees from a nuc to your hive or we can do it for you. It is a simple process. Just lift the frames out of the nucleus colony and place them into your hive. Make up the extra frames with your own new frames of foundation or drawn combs. For example a four frame bee nucleus going into an 8 frame brood box will require 4 extra new frames.
Queens are marked with a water based marker pen by placing a coloured dot on the thorax. This makes the queen bee easier to see among the other bees on the frame. Marking also makes it easier to establish if the hive has swarmed or replaced the original queen. We don’t get too concerned with the international queen marking system. Pink and yellow tend to stand out therefor we mostly use those colours for queen marking.
We highly recommend Beekeeping Basics, an Armidale based beekeeping training business. The owner Allan Thomas is an ex high school agriculture teacher and also an experienced beekeeper and consequently he can pass on his extensive knowledge to new beekeepers.
Mt. Coramba Apiculture have put together a list of online beekeeping resources that we think will be helpful to new and experienced beekeepers alike. All of these resources are from peer reviewed, reliable government and industry sources. We do not recommend Facebook as a reliable source of information.
We highly regard new beekeepers who are members of the NSW Amateur Beekeepers Association. The NSW Amateur Beekeepers Association has very active branches in Taree, Mid North Coast and Northern Rivers. The Mid North Coast Amateur Beekeepers Association meet on the second Sunday of every month.
Our responsible backyard beekeeping blog is packed with useful information if you are thinking about beekeeping.
You will also need some basic equipment. Essentials include a smoker, a bee suit, a hive tool. Furthermore you will also require bottom boards, boxes, lids and frames to house your bees. In the areas we cover we recommend Tamworth Beekeeping Supplies & Valley Industries for your beekeeping equipment.
