Spring 2027 · waitlist open
Overwintered
5-Frame Nuc
$225 · $50 deposit holds your slot
A colony with a year of selection already behind it. Five deep Langstroth frames, a laying queen from our breeding line, and a full season of survival in the Inland Northwest before it ever leaves our apiary.
Reservations are not yet open
We sold out for 2026. Spring 2027 reservations open in late winter — join the waitlist below and we'll email you first.
Join the waitlistWhat's in the box
- ·Roughly 3 frames of brood — eggs, larvae, capped, all stages
- ·1 frame of honey and pollen
- ·1 frame of drawn comb with bees
- ·A laying queen — locally bred, open-mated, unmarked. We confirm she's laying solidly before she leaves us.
- ·Waxed cardboard transport nuc box with yellow entrance plugs
- ·Conversation at pickup, and through the season — bring questions
No feeder included. Mite management on our colonies is oxalic acid only — no synthetic miticides ever. Want the queen marked so she's easier to spot? Add marking for $10.
Provenance
Already done a winter.
Each colony we sell as an overwintered nuc came up through the same cycle:
- Last spring we grafted larvae from one of our breeder queens — a colony that had already overwintered on a single deep in our Inland Northwest forest apiary — and raised them into queen cells.
- One ripe cell was placed with one frame of bees and brood from a production hive, dropped into a waxed cardboard nuc box, and set on its own pine round in the trees.
- The new queen mated to local drones and started laying. The colony grew through the rest of the summer on its own — nectar from canola, sweet clover, alfalfa, lavender, knapweed, sunflowers.
- Going into winter, the colony was strong enough to overwinter on a single deep. Through January, it held cluster on its own stores in our timber.
- This spring, it's a five-frame colony with brood, food, and a confirmed laying queen — ready to move into your hive.
That cycle is the entire point. The bees you take home aren't starting from scratch — they're continuing a colony that has already proven it can live where you'll keep it.
Stock
Our bees are local.
Our line started as Carniolan years ago. Since then, every generation has been open-mated to local drones and bred only from colonies that came through winter here. Here's why that matters.
Winter picks our breeders.
We breed only from colonies that survived an Inland Northwest winter on a single deep — then, among those, the best honey producers, then the easiest to work.
Commercial queens die here.
We've tested Carniolan, Saskatraz, and Italian queens against our own. They consistently fail over our winters. Most commercial queens are mated in California or the South, whatever the label says.
The research agrees.
Cold-climate stocks carry measurably different biology (Parker et al. 2010). Local bees time their brood to local flows (Strange et al. 2007). Local-origin colonies live longer — ~600 colonies, 21 apiaries (Büchler et al. 2014).
More on how we breed on our About page.
Before you pick up
Have the deep set up on its stand at the permanent spot before you come pick up. When you get home, put the cardboard nuc right next to (or on top of) the deep, pull the yellow entrance plugs, and walk away. Leave the bees alone for a day or two so they orient to the location — then transfer the frames into the deep. We'll talk you through it at pickup, and the full step-by-step is in the owner's guide.
Equipment checklist
- ☐Two deep brood boxes per hive (the second goes on once the first fills)
- ☐Bottom board, inner cover, telescoping cover
- ☐Hive stand off the ground
- ☐5 frames with foundation (or foundationless) for the empty space in the deep
- ☐Smoker, hive tool, suit/veil
Read the full nuc owner's guide for the full first-week walkthrough — install timing, feeding, winter prep, mite management.
Pickup
Nucs go out on scheduled pickup days, starting in Deer Park and expanding to towns around the region as we grow. Each pickup day is listed with its town, time window, and how many nucs are available — pick the one that works for you. The exact spot comes with your order confirmation.
Bring a way to transport the nuc upright (truck bed or strapped passenger seat). The cardboard box has yellow entrance plugs that stay in until you get home.
Cash or card on the day. The $50 deposit holds your slot; the balance ($175 per nuc) is due at pickup.
Get on the Spring 2027 waitlist
Tell us how many you're considering — it helps us plan production.