White Oak Apairies NUCS Brewster NY

[xcugat]

Hello,

Just wanted to post my experience with White Oak Apiaries in Brewster NY. I know that Mike the owner is just starting out, and I wanted to give him some slack but I cannot as I have spoken to and seen reviews from others that had similar experiences to me.

First off we were told that they would be ready Mid may--I picked them up on Friday June 15 (one month later than planned) This was annoying but I didnt mind as I would rather have good nucs than rushed nucs. Well I went over to get my 24 nucs for the local club and arrived at 9 am and was told "oh someone who wasnt supposed to pick up today came unplanned and so I had to give him 40 nucs" 24 of which were mine--so then I had to wait an hour for him to wrangle up 24 nucs.

Then right off the bat while I am checking some of them I see one with hardly any eggs no brood so we had to swap it for another. I had people meeting me enroute home and now I was one hour late so I couldn't go through each nuc. So I get home an before giving each nuc to club members I checked them
1 had 4 frames no brood eggs nothing
3 had just eggs no brood capped
1 had a swarm cell that just emerged and one in process

I was so mad I cannot give these to new beekeepers in good conscience. So I had to drive all the way back to Brewster to switch them for new ones which the owner did--but I must say he was rather unapologetic. I understand this is a new business and it is one young guy doing everything but I think he got in over his head. The nucs that were good were great but the bad ones....well they were not even sellable.

Anybody else buy NUCs from White Oak?

[BeeCurious]

I'll be interested in knowing how the "great" nucs do...

A friend of mine was disappointed with the nucs she purchased from White Oak.

[cowdoc]

I tried White Oak Apiary nucs this year also. I picked them up on June 8. On June 15, I photographed them all. I put the pictures on my website at www.beevet.com/WhiteOak/WhiteOakMain.php

I bought 12, 3 were for other people, and 2 more were sold upon arrival home. I heard that one of the 3 had built up well, another was building, but slow, and no word on the other or the 2 sold last. I tried to sell the best nucs (most bees, heaviest) to the other people, so the 7 I have pictured are probably the worst of all 12.

I called, emailed and texted Mike Bruen to ask for his comments first. I have not heard back on any of those methods of communication. I do have my limited comments on what I am seeing at the bottom of each page. each page has a picture of both sides of each frame. There are a few missing that I did not get done right. All of the nucs have recently been combined with another or a swarm in order to try to have some strength for winter. I am not sure in the combined form they will be ready for winter. Most were not drawing out, and I had had issues trying to get them queenright. I moved them from the nucs into new wood with new wood and foundation or new pierco with extra wax painted on to entice the bees to draw it out.

Is this typical of what people are selling for nuc hives? I am looking to buy a lot of nucs and/or packages next year. The talk on the website was good. Not sure the product measured up.

Chris
Washington County, NY

[Cloverdale]

I bought my NUC from George Jersey, Barnveld NY I took a class with him at our local Cornell Cooperative Ext. and I know he has done quite a few; I have heard no complaints. This is my first year, and I would recommend him. If you need a phone number or email I will pass it on to you. I believe he is Wild Mountain Apiaries, NY.

[xcugat]

2013 Heads up on this (yes I am still annoyed....) For anyone thinking about White Oak Nucs look at COW Docs photos pretty conclusive and similar to what I experienced

[Michael Palmer]

Is this typical of what people are selling for nuc hives? I am looking to buy a lot of nucs and/or packages next year. The talk on the website was good. Not sure the product measured up.

Chris
Washington County, NY

I looked at some of the photos you posted Chris. Pitiful examples of nucleus colonies.
The nucs you ordered for this season will have 2 frames honey and 3 frames of brood.



Mike

[xcugat]

Update: The article in the April edition of Bee culture regarding "Buying Nucs", tells a similar horrible story from another customer. Though the apiary is not named it is certainly White Oak, which can be figured out by quotes from the apiary website (which are still up by the way if you google the quotes) BEWARE you will not get what you pay for and this article further proves it

[mahobee]

I also had a bad experience with Mike. Rather than bore you with all the gory details, suffice to say he is not set up in a professional manner, has no record keeping, sells shoddy equipment as new, is EXTREMELY difficult to contact, and told me "I am a wholesaler, I can't provide service to individuals'. There are so many nice helpful beekeepers out there, why deal with a nasty one?