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IN-STORE PICK UP ONLY. WE DO NOT SHIP NUCS. Pick up date will be determined by the store after purchase. We will contact you when your NUC is ready. We shoot for sometime in mid May, but the weather will determine when they will be ready.Please double check and make sure we have the correct e-mail and phone number of the person who will be picking up the bees. You must bring a driver’s license or other valid ID to pick up your bees.
***Select Pickup In Store. THE PICK UP DATE WILL BE determined by store management.***
Make sure to review our Refund Policy on our website: https://rockymountainbeesupply.com/pages/refund-policy-for-live-bees
2026 Colorado NUCs will come with 5 Deep frames and a 2026 Italian-Survivor Stock mated queen in a plastic Pro NUC box. Queens will NOT be marked. These NUCs are made from splits from ours and another commercial beekeeper's colonies here in Colorado. To set the conditions for success, our NUCs will be built from strong overwintered mother colonies and will contain a newly mated 2026 Italian-Survivor Stock queen with 1-2 frame(s) of honey, and 3 frames containing pollen, eggs, larvae, capped brood, and nurse bees. The 2026 NUCs will be split from working honey production hives. What this means is that NUCs may include wood or plastic frames, or a combination of both. Most frames will consist of 2-3 year old comb, but some may be older.
Your NUC will arrive in a plastic Pro-Nuc box and will have been treated for varroa destructor mites in early spring prior to delivery; HOWEVER, due to the prevalence of DWV (Deformed Wing Virus) and other mite borne viruses we saw this past three years, we recommend you give your bees a week to settle in, and do an additional full spring treatment on them while their brood is fairly small.
Additionally, we recommend you do a mite count (simply accomplished with an Varroa Check unit) in July/August and treat if thresholds warrant it. Follow up with a thorough treatment again in the fall before winterizing, and again in February with one or two oxalic acid vaporization treatments. Failure to treat your bees on a regular regimen for varroa mites could cause colony failure.Oxalic acid (delivered by a vaporizer), Apiguard, Formic Pro or Varroxsan are great treatments for varroa mites and are on the gentler end of the treatment spectrum. Please always read product directions to make sure applications are successful. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
PLEASE FEED YOUR NUC A 1:1 SYRUP WATER AND DO NOT LET THE FEEDER RUN DRY UNTIL YOUR BEES HAVE SUCCESSFULLY EXPANDED TO TWO DEEP BOXES. FAILURE TO FEED YOUR BEES CONSISTENTLY WILL DIMINISH THEIR CAPACITY TO DRAW OUT WAX COMB AND EXPAND WITH ENOUGH RESOURCES TO SURVIVE THEIR FIRST WINTER.
Adding bee nutritionals will help your package get established and overcome the stress of shipping: Fat & Happy Syrup , BeeBites , Bee Crack , Complete Bee , Hive Alive
DELIVERY: The dates for delivery will be determined based on the healthy development of the NUCs. We will strive to deliver all NUCs by mid May 2026. We will do our very best to keep all beekeepers updated on the status of the NUCs because we know people have busy lives and need to plan accordingly. Please go to our website and look for the scrolling banner on our homepage: we will keep this banner updated with information on the delivery of the NUCs. Please keep in mind that Springtime weather will have the most effect on development and delivery timing. If we have late snow and cold, the queens may shut down and will not lay eggs. We will need a good window of approximately three consistent warm weeks for egg-laying and brood development. Other NUC producers that have guaranteed delivery dates are most likely importing their NUCs from out of state.
It is in our best interest to provide the highest quality NUCs to our customers, and we strive to provide the best support that we can. However, there are many variables in beekeeping, and we cannot guarantee that you will be able to successfully continue to establish a bee colony. We do offer and recommend that all new beekeepers take a basic beekeeping class prior to receiving their bees. Please see our classes listed on our website under the Services tab: https://rockymountainbeesupply.com/collections/classes-and-training or check our Upcoming Events Calendar for in-store classes.
We ask that you recycle your plastic NUC box and lid with us after installation to avoid it ending up in a landfill. Thank you for beekeeping with us!