Buying nuc's: Was I ripped off?

[shinbone]

Who was the seller?

I bought a nuc from an operation in NM. I would call it a medium strength hive. I received a nuc from a local Denver operation which turned out to be pretty weak, and 2 nucs from Apis Hives in Grand Junction, CO, which were excellent and are growing fast. There are my first four hives, so I understand the difficulty of not having the experience to judge the quality of a nuc.

[jredburn]

MY opinion is that you got ripped. If the second nuc is not any better, contact the man and tell him to make it right, refund your money or you will post his name on the forums.

[Nabber86]

If the second nuc is not any better, contact the man and tell him to make it right, refund your money or you will post his name on the forums.

Exactly. If the guy has been around for any length of time, he already knows that word travels fast in the beekeeping community. The OP said that the seller had a good rep. You dont sustain that by ripping people off.

[woodguyrob]

think that the nuc hives were actually packages like mentioned before. i would call the guy and complain ! But on the other note the hive boxes and frames should be assembled long before getting bees, since you had a long time to do it. at least that is what i have been told from everyone i know and all the books i have read so far.

but i tend to research everything too much.

I hope you get the matter resolved and i wish you luck !

Ben

Having your equipment ready or not is not the point. $150 is a steep price for what was delivered.. to top it off the guy drops them off in bad weather, un announced and then screws!

Good luck with them I hope the build up quickly for you.

[Island Apiaries]

I think you got ripped off too. I sell 5 frames for $120 here locally. Having your equipment ready should not be an issue either. a decent nuc should be able to sit in a protected area for a few days with no problem. I would take photos of the 2nd nuc as you open and send them to the seller. You should have at least 4 frames of bees and 3 of brood.

[westernbeekeeper]

You WERE ripped off!!! Contact the supplier with your problem, and if it's not made right, don't buy from them ever again.

[Acebird]

This here is exactly why I suggest a newbie buy only 1 hive to start. For $300 you should be able to get all the equipment for a full hive with bees. Make all your mistakes on that first hive then you ask questions and have a good chance of success on the next hive if you don't get lucky up front having success with that first hive. A nuc is an active hive. If you did absolutely nothing except add equipment you should have a 95% success rate the first year.

[StewRoten]

I have paid $100 each for three nucs from two sources. Packages nearby are $90 each. I can't imagine buying a package again so long as the prices are that close. I have benefited greatly from working w/ local suppliers who are connected w/ our beekeepers assoc. Both suppliers were able to spend time w/ me offering education and background on their bees and tips for getting them up and going. Both are queen breeders and both have offered to teach queen rearing techniques. Not a bad deal at all.

[camero7]

This here is exactly why I suggest a newbie buy only 1 hive to start. For $300 you should be able to get all the equipment for a full hive with bees. Make all your mistakes on that first hive then you ask questions and have a good chance of success on the next hive if you don't get lucky up front having success with that first hive. A nuc is an active hive. If you did absolutely nothing except add equipment you should have a 95% success rate the first year.

i think 2 nucs are better. gives you an option to "help" one if it's weak. Gives new beekeepers an better idea of how a hive should build up.

[Oldtimer]

Can't comment on price. However, because the lid blew off & it got rained on, pretty hard to say wether that had an effect and it now had less bees and looked worse than when it was delivered. But the fact he said they could be left in the nuc for a month is suspicious they clearly were not up to par and he knew it.

One bit of advice though, you were a mug for not having any gear ready. When I sell nucs they are packed, I tell my customers they need to be put in a bigger hive immediately. But it's surprising how many people will ring up later and actually complain because they swarmed. When we discuss it, turns out that a month later the hive is still in the same box they got it in. I say I told you to give the bees more room, they say, oh yeah, but I been busy. Pees me off I put a lot of effort into providing a primo product pumped and ready to go and it gets stuffed up by idiots.

Next time, have the gear ready.

[camero7]

Agree totally. I had a nuc picked up 2 weeks late today. It's on the verge of swarming [but no swarm cells]. if not moved into a 10 frame this week they will be building them. If it swarms I don't feel obligated in any way.

[Nabber86]

This here is exactly why I suggest a newbie buy only 1 hive to start. For $300 you should be able to get all the equipment for a full hive with bees.

Unless money is an issue, why not start off with 2 nucs (or more). I didnt see the OP complaining about the overall cost of startup - only the part about possibly overpaying for bad nucs. But of course money should never be an issue because as you have said before:

I find beekeeping to be a very cheap hobby. It is the only hobby that I know of where you literally do not have to spend one dime to get into.

[sammyjay]

I find it strange that he would not have the feeding can secure, but here you have to pay around 150 $ for a 1 kilogram package if you buy 1 to 9, so you weren't really ripped off too badly.


Nathan

[BeeCurious]

If you did absolutely nothing except add equipment you should have a 95% success rate the first year.

95% success rate... just by adding equipment?

That's a SNAP!

[psisk]

You got ripped!!! I would definitely ask for better hives or my money back. Down here you can buy nucs for 100-125. Five frames installed in your equipment for 90 bucks. Good luck with your bees.

psisk

[Nabber86]

95% success rate... just by adding equipment?

That's a SNAP!

That means after a few years of experience, I could potentially keep 100 hives and lose less than 5 each winter. Or even 1000 hives and lose less than 50. Where do I sign up? I am ready to quit my day job.

[Honningbarnet]

Actually, I checked my invoices and the nucs were $175 each... The only other NM website offering nucs were $300. Oh well, live and learn..

I opened the second nuc, it was FINE!!! I saw the queen, saw cells of honey and capped something or other, either pollen or brood? But there was also a queen cage with a dead queen inside it. Don't know what the deal is with that. But now I am thinking that the first "nuc" is actually a package since it had bees of all colors in it from grey and white, to yellow, to orange and brown. They were real upset so I didn't get a good look at their frames and didn't see the queen. The first nuc also took a long time to settle in their new hive, while the second nuc barely batted an eyelid when I moved them over.

I put granulated sugar out for them, just in case they needed something to tide them over. I am not sure if I saw capped honey, but I did see uncapped honey. And the mesquite is in full bloom.

Just in case the first nuc is queenless, what should I do? Also, I didn't see any larvae or eggs anywhere though I may have missed it.

[heus]

Do you think maybe the queen that you saw in nuc #2 came from nuc #1 when the top blew off? Maybe like a mini "walking swarm?" When she came over the caged queen was killed by her nurse bees?

[psfred]

Well, as a hobby this isn't the most expensive so far (not counting the woodworking equipment, that's a different account, eh?), and bees this year have been as cheap as they get: dropped of a nuc hive (stand, box, inner and outer covers) I'd arranged to trade a friend for bees, and it came back three days later with a decent sized swarm in it, got a call the day after I dropped it off.

Returned that one for a re-fill (hehe) and then got a call on Friday, my friend couldn't go get a swarm, so my brother and I did. Nice swarm, about six pounds or so (completely full nuc box, I need to transfer them tomorrow). Not counting the hives I made (since I want them for overwintering anyway), my total cost for bees this year is driving about 20 miles total. Since I drive 70 miles a day to work alone, I think that's about as close to free as I can get.

Spent about $200 so far on hive parts, wood, and foundation. Should be set for the year, three hives for me, two for my brother (mostly supers for him, he has plenty of deeps), and he just had a swarm move into his deadout!

Been a good year so far, extracted a super on Saturday.

Peter

[Honningbarnet]

The first nuc has been very riled up, not aggressive, but out of sorts, since we got them while the second one has been ultra calm the whole time. So I suspect that if they are indeed queenless they have been so since the beginning.

Yeah, my husband is egging me on to get us on a swarm list. And here he was, deathly afraid of bees as of two weeks ago...