Bees for Sale UK

Each year, we overwinter a few colonies of honey bees for sale the next spring, as well as a selection of spring colonies for sale in June.

Over-wintered Nucs

Our overwintered nucs are a fantastic way to start beekeeping. The most challenging season for bees is the winter, overwintering shows that they have resilience and survivability traits.

We take pre-orders for these from October each year. They typically sell out in the early part of the following year.

Spring Nucs

Get started early in the season with spring nucs. These are raised early in the year and are ready for delivery in mid-june each year. 

Why buy from The Hive Guys™?

Bee buying can be difficult. When you buy honey bees from us, we guarantee you a great quality colony, packed with worker bees and a mated Buckfast queen. Buckfast bees are the industry standard for great genetics in the UK, they are the most common breed of queen.

  • Start Keeping Bees - a quick and easy way to start keeping bees. Purchase bees from us and we'll deliver it on the date selected.
  • Buckfast Queen - fore-fronted by a selectively bred F1 Buckfast queen, these bees are optimised for great honey production. 
  • National Frames - these arrive on BS4 National frames which are the standard size for most UK hives. 
  • Securely Delivered - our honey bees are delivered via Royal Mail post.
  • Deposit Only - pay in full one week before we dispatch the bees. 


Bees for Sale UK
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Questions & Answers

Does a nuc include everything needed to start beekeeping?

The nuc contains a fully thriving starter colony with enough stores and bees to grow into a full-size hive. This is the best way to buy bees for a beehive.

What types of bees do you sell?

These are F1 Buckfast bees.

How are the bees packaged for delivery?

Our bee nucs for sale are shipped in a Correx nuc box. This is a disposable transport box for shipping bees (however, they are rather useful to keep for catching swarms).

Do you ship bees nationwide?

Yes, we deliver bees to the whole of mainland UK with Royal Mail Special Delivery. Royal Mail delivers hundreds of thousands of honey bee colonies each year. We’ll mark the container with a notice telling them they are live bees.

When will my bees arrive?

Bees are delivered towards the end of April each year or mid-June if you select a current-season colony of bees.

Can I pick up my bees in person?

Yes. We offer collection of nucs from our workshop in Canterbury, Kent, UK.

What is a Buckfast bee?

Buckfast is a breed of bee. They were selectively bred by Brother Adam at Buckfast Abbey in England in the 1900s. They have become the industry standard in beekeeping for their calm nature, disease resistance, and a great honey crop. They are now the most popular bees for sale in the UK.

What is a nuc?

A nuc (sometimes misspelled as “nuke”) is a small colony of bees with 5–6 frames of brood. Brood is the eggs and larvae of the bees. They are smaller than a regular hive to make them easy to transport. They contain bees and a queen.

How many worker bees?

There are around 20,000 worker bees in the box with a single queen.

When can these be purchased?

Our bees and queens are for sale throughout the heart of the beekeeping season, which is April–September. Over-wintered bee nucleus are for sale at the end of the year for collection in April the next year.

Are these nucs of bees for sale imported from the EU?

No, since Brexit, you can no longer import colonies of bees from the EU. These are British bees for sale.

How are these honey bee nucs made?

We overwinter our honey bees in poly nucs. Poly nucs provide great thermal insulation and help the colonies come out of winter stronger than regular nucs.