Overwintered Buckfast Nucleus Colony 2027

Available Spring 2027 – Collection Only

This listing is for an £80 non-refundable deposit only. The total price of each overwintered nucleus colony is £280, leaving a balance of £200 payable before collection. The outstanding balance will be invoiced prior to your collection date and must be paid in full in accordance with our Terms & Conditions.

Our premium Overwintered Buckfast Nucleus Colonies are carefully raised and successfully overwintered in our Oxfordshire apiaries, giving you a strong, established colony ready to thrive as soon as the season begins.

Each nucleus colony is headed by a UK-bred F1 Buckfast Queen, bred by ourselves from carefully selected breeding stock. Our breeding programme focuses on producing queens with excellent temperament, strong brood patterns, good productivity, and reliable overwintering performance, making them suitable for both hobbyist and commercial beekeepers.

Every queen is marked with the internationally recognised colour for her year of origin to aid identification during hive inspections. Please note that, although queens are marked before sale, the paint mark may naturally become worn or rubbed off over time through normal activity within the colony. This does not affect the queen's health or performance.

Each overwintered nuc is supplied in a 5-frame correx travel nuc box, suitable for transporting your bees home safely. The correx box is included in the purchase price and does not need to be returned.

Every overwintered nuc is supplied on 5 National brood frames and will typically include:

• A proven UK-bred F1 Buckfast queen bred by Jarvis Honey.
• A healthy population of overwintered worker bees.
• Frames containing brood in all stages (weather and seasonal development permitting).
• Adequate food stores to support the colony during transfer.
• A laying queen with an established brood pattern.
• Bees inspected prior to collection to ensure they meet our quality standards.

By purchasing an overwintered nucleus colony from Jarvis Honey, you're investing in a colony that has already demonstrated its ability to survive a British winter, providing an excellent start to the beekeeping season with reduced establishment time compared with newly created spring nucs.

As a family-run business, we are committed to ethical, sustainable beekeeping and producing healthy, high-quality British-bred bees selected for temperament, health, and productivity.

Collection Information

Collection only.

To protect the health and biosecurity of our apiaries, all nucleus colonies must be collected in person. Following your purchase, you will receive a What3Words location for a designated public collection point near one of our apiaries. Collection dates and times will be arranged in advance.

Customers are responsible for transporting their bees safely and securely after collection using suitable transport arrangements.

Collection dates may be adjusted if necessary due to weather conditions, colony development, or bee welfare. The health and wellbeing of our bees will always take priority.

Please note that, once the nucleus colony has been collected, responsibility for its transportation and safe handling passes to the purchaser.

The £80 deposit secures your reservation and is subject to our Terms & Conditions. The remaining balance of £200 must be paid in full upon receipt of your final invoice before collection. Failure to pay the balance by the specified date may result in the cancellation of your order and forfeiture of your deposit.