Kings Orchard Blog

Availability of bees for sale

Kings Orchard Honey

***Following BREXIT package of bees and full colonies are now banned for import into the UK, new regulations also apply for imported queens from within the EU including Northern Ireland.

We are experiencing an incremental leap in the number of requests for nucs that we are getting for our locally reared native Cornish black bees.

We usually over winter around 50+ nucleus colonies of bees to cover for any of our own losses, and increase in colonies in the Spring.

We sometimes will have a few overwintered colonies for sale in April, but given the rarity of the Cornish Native black bee and the difficulty in selecting good stock, we try to home these with experienced beekeepers and within our local area of Cornwall, so that we can conserve the local gene pool.

Importing of exotic sub species of bees into an area where the beekeepers are endeavouring to conserve native stock leads to a dilution of the gene pool, and can bring in virus and other pests and honey bee diseases.

We also begin queen rearing in May given good weather, and will have some nucleus colonies available from the end of June, occasionally we also have queens for sale over the summer months.

If you are looking for bees we still may be able to help as we have a network of beekeepers who for what ever reason have native or near native bees for sale.

We strongly advise beginners not to be tempted to buy or acquire a “swarm”… as the bees may be carrying disease and are of unknown provenance. Best advice is to be sure you know where the bees came from and have the Defra/Apha/NBU Seasonal Bee Inspector check the bees before you buy them.