Beekeeping requires thoughtful planning and precise timing, starting long before the bees arrive. Successful colony establishment depends heavily on securing colonies well in advance of the spring installation season. Acquiring a new colony requires understanding the annual supply cycle to ensure a healthy start. This preparation helps the beekeeper catch the early spring nectar flow.
The Critical Ordering Window
The most opportune time to place an order for new bees is during the late fall or early winter, typically between December and January. Reserving stock early is necessary because of high demand and limited supply, even though delivery occurs the following spring. The supply of bees from commercial operations producing packages and nucs is finite and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Delaying the order until late winter or early spring significantly increases the risk of suppliers being sold out or offering less desirable delivery dates. Placing an order early secures your position, ensuring delivery during the preferred installation window. This window is dictated by the local climate, specifically the timing of the first major nectar flow and consistent warmer temperatures.
For beekeepers in warmer southern regions, delivery might be as early as late March, aligning with an earlier bloom. Northern beekeepers often aim for a later arrival in late April or mid-May to avoid late-season freezes. Coordinating the arrival of the bees with the initial burst of available forage is important for the colony’s rapid growth and survival.
Choosing Your Bee Stock
When ordering, beekeepers choose between two primary stock options: the package and the nucleus colony (nuc). This choice impacts the ordering timeline and the initial development of the colony. A package is a screened box containing a queen and roughly three pounds of worker bees, offering a cost-effective starting point.
Packages are widely available from large-scale commercial operations and can often be shipped earlier in the season. However, the queen is often a stranger to the worker bees, and the colony must begin from scratch, building all necessary wax comb for the queen to lay eggs. This slower start means the package population will initially dwindle before new brood emerges, requiring consistent feeding.
The alternative is the nuc, a small, established colony typically consisting of four or five frames of comb, a mated queen, brood at various stages, and food stores. Nucs provide a significant head start because the queen is already laying and the bees have drawn comb ready for expansion. The major trade-off is higher cost and more limited availability, as nucs are often sourced from local beekeepers who cannot produce them as early as packages.
Nucs require time to become established and show signs of a laying queen, so they are typically ready for pickup later, often in late April or May. This later timing may mean they miss the earliest spring nectar flow. However, the advantage of an already functional mini-colony often outweighs the delay, making early reservation highly recommended due to limited local supply.
Essential Pre-Arrival Preparations
Once the bee order is secured and the delivery date is confirmed, the focus shifts to preparing the hive equipment and location. All wooden hive components, including the bottom board, hive bodies, and covers, must be fully assembled before the arrival date. If using unassembled kits, the frames and foundation must also be secured into the boxes.
Exterior wood surfaces should be painted with an exterior-grade paint and allowed a minimum of two to four weeks to fully cure. This curing time ensures that volatile organic compounds from the paint have dissipated, preventing possible harm to the new colony. The hive location should be selected for level ground, good drainage, and a spot that receives morning sun to encourage early foraging.
The beekeeper must also acquire personal protective equipment, such as a veil or full suit, and essential tools. This basic kit includes a smoker and suitable fuel to calm the bees during installation and inspections, and a hive tool for separating frames glued together with propolis. Having all these items ready before the scheduled delivery minimizes stress for the beekeeper and the new colony.