Photo by Pat Deasy
Buy and Sell
This is the area of our website where people can advertise bees and bee keeping equipment to fellow beekeepers.
Please be aware that the agreements are between the buyer and the seller. The IBA CLG have no pecuniary interests in this service and cannot be held responsible for any goods or services offered. Buy and sell at your own discretion.
Our site averages about 5000 views a week, so you should get good exposure for your products.
If you want to advertise here please use the Contact Form to let us know what goods you want to buy or sell and how you want to be contacted.
CRITERIA FOR PRODUCTION AND SALE OF NUCLEI
There are a few criteria to keep in mind when offering bees for sale.
Ideally the bees should be good honey producers, have low swarming trait, be docile and disease resistant.
Nuclei fall into two categories, over wintered or summer/autumn produced.
Overwintered nuclei have the advantage of a well established and proven queen, that has the potential to produce honey in the first year.
When selling a nucleus, ensure that the queen is no more than a year old.
She should be clipped and marked.
She should have laid up a minimum of 2 frames and the brood viability should be greater than 95 %.
At least 4 combs of the 5 frame nucleus should be covered with bees
The frames should be standard Hoffman type, and in good condition.
Combs should not contain a lot of drone brood or unusable cells, they should all be clean and less than a year old.
Overwintered nuclei can be sold from April on, after the first inspection. At that inspection the colony should be checked for diseases, AFB, nosema and acarine. Combs should be free of chalk brood.
There should be sufficient stores to last the colony for 7 days after sale.
Summer/ Autumn nuclei
Many beekeepers make up nucs as a method of swarm control in May/June.
Queens in these nucs should come from point of hatching queens, virgins or mated queens from a breeder queen.
The nucleus should not have to raise its own queen from eggs or larva in the nuclei.
The nuclei can be sold once the queen is laying and there is sealed brood. It may not be practical to clip the young queen. but an attempt to mark her should be made prior to sale.
These summer nuclei should be ready for sale at the end of July and early August.
Nuclei made up after the honey flow should be be overwintered and sold in the spring.
All sales of nuclei should include an advisory leaflet as to what is needed as the colony expands and the seller should keep records for tractability.
QUEEN MARKING, the internationally agreed code of colours for queen marking is:
GREY or WHITE for any year ending 1 or 6 WILL
YELLOW for any year ending in 2 or 7 YOU
RED for any year ending in 3 or 8 REAR
GREEN for any year ending 4 or 9 GOOD
BLUE for any year ending in 5 or 0 BEES BEES
BEEHEALTH: IBAclg advises extreme caution to anyone buying/selling 2nd hand beehives or frames/accessories and other equipment - every precaution should be taken beforehand (and on acquiring items) to sterilise everything sufficiently to prevent spread of diseases. Common sense should prevail - if in doubt - don't sell/buy - or, put that old beehive in an isolated apiary for some time to establish it isn't problematic.
Please be aware that the agreements are between the buyer and the seller. The IBA CLG have no pecuniary interests in this service and cannot be held responsible for any goods or services offered. Buy and sell at your own discretion.
Our site averages about 5000 views a week, so you should get good exposure for your products.
If you want to advertise here please use the Contact Form to let us know what goods you want to buy or sell and how you want to be contacted.
CRITERIA FOR PRODUCTION AND SALE OF NUCLEI
There are a few criteria to keep in mind when offering bees for sale.
Ideally the bees should be good honey producers, have low swarming trait, be docile and disease resistant.
Nuclei fall into two categories, over wintered or summer/autumn produced.
Overwintered nuclei have the advantage of a well established and proven queen, that has the potential to produce honey in the first year.
When selling a nucleus, ensure that the queen is no more than a year old.
She should be clipped and marked.
She should have laid up a minimum of 2 frames and the brood viability should be greater than 95 %.
At least 4 combs of the 5 frame nucleus should be covered with bees
The frames should be standard Hoffman type, and in good condition.
Combs should not contain a lot of drone brood or unusable cells, they should all be clean and less than a year old.
Overwintered nuclei can be sold from April on, after the first inspection. At that inspection the colony should be checked for diseases, AFB, nosema and acarine. Combs should be free of chalk brood.
There should be sufficient stores to last the colony for 7 days after sale.
Summer/ Autumn nuclei
Many beekeepers make up nucs as a method of swarm control in May/June.
Queens in these nucs should come from point of hatching queens, virgins or mated queens from a breeder queen.
The nucleus should not have to raise its own queen from eggs or larva in the nuclei.
The nuclei can be sold once the queen is laying and there is sealed brood. It may not be practical to clip the young queen. but an attempt to mark her should be made prior to sale.
These summer nuclei should be ready for sale at the end of July and early August.
Nuclei made up after the honey flow should be be overwintered and sold in the spring.
All sales of nuclei should include an advisory leaflet as to what is needed as the colony expands and the seller should keep records for tractability.
QUEEN MARKING, the internationally agreed code of colours for queen marking is:
GREY or WHITE for any year ending 1 or 6 WILL
YELLOW for any year ending in 2 or 7 YOU
RED for any year ending in 3 or 8 REAR
GREEN for any year ending 4 or 9 GOOD
BLUE for any year ending in 5 or 0 BEES BEES
BEEHEALTH: IBAclg advises extreme caution to anyone buying/selling 2nd hand beehives or frames/accessories and other equipment - every precaution should be taken beforehand (and on acquiring items) to sterilise everything sufficiently to prevent spread of diseases. Common sense should prevail - if in doubt - don't sell/buy - or, put that old beehive in an isolated apiary for some time to establish it isn't problematic.
