Good news! I am now taking reservations for packages for the 2025 season!
More good news!!!! We have joined the 21st century and will be accepting credit cards for payment as well as cash and local checks. The price for 3 lb package with Italian queens is $165.00 plus tax. I have two dates, Friday April 4th and Friday April 25th. I will automatically fill your request with the earliest available date. If you want a later date, you need to request the later date in your email. Email your request to orders@azapiaries.com and I will send the appropriate form.
143 South Brook Rd ,Hampton CT
Questions? Call me 860-428-1731
Questions? The best number is my cell 860-428-1731.
Need beehives and related supplies?
Check out the equipment page here for great prices on assembled and painted hives and hive components. Available in 8 and 10 frame sizes. Beginning in January, we will usually be open on Saturday mornings from 9:00AM till noon through April 5th, 2024. Other times by appointment call 860-428-1731. scroll down to get more detailed information about our package bees as well as our five frame nucs.
Our 3lb packages come from Wilbanks Apiaries in Claxton, Georgia. They have Wilbanks famous Italian Queens and are rushed up to A&Z Apiaries in Hampton CT on a dedicated, climate-controlled truck, usually arriving within 18 hrs of departure from Georgia. This ensures less stress on the bees because they don’t spend up to a week in transit as is often the case with mail order bees or those trucked in from California.
These packages contain approximately 10,000 bees, one mated Italian Queen and a feeder that keeps them fed during transport. This is the traditional manner to start new colonies, and we have a good supply of them available to pre order during the season. We are now taking orders for 2025.
Nucleus colonies, I am now taking reservations for nucs for delivery in late May. The 2025 price is $195.00 plus tax and deposit on the ProNuc box. Read the details below.
Now let’s talk about 5 frame nucleus colonies, or “nucs” as they are commonly called. I am often asked to define my Queens as a certain strain of bees. I guess that if pressed, I would call them “Mutts” as the queens have been raised by me and open mated here in Eastern Ct for nearly 25 years. These queens are mated in areas where we strive to saturate the area with drones from our colonies, thus concentrating genetic stock from our own bees. Each spring, from over 350 of our colonies, I select the three that have wintered in the best condition here in Southern New England. The queens from these special colonies are then used to provide larvae that will become new queens.
We add these developing queens to three frames of worker larvae (or brood as we call it) and one full comb of honey and pollen as a food reserve. These components, along with one more empty comb and one frame of foundation are placed into a special hive where the young queen will hatch out, mate and then begin laying the eggs that will become a rapidly expanding population of worker bees in their new home. This process usually takes from 3-4 weeks. Only after I have verified the health and quality of the queen and her offspring, then verified that the colony is growing properly, will I release this nuc to its new owner. Because we put so much care into raising these bees, they will not be ready until late May at the earliest. We will not release them until they are ready to our satisfaction. If you are in a hurry to get bees, do not order a nuc, order a 3lb package of bees that will arrive earlier. Like the packages, we fill nuc orders in the sequence that they were placed and no amount of begging, cajoling or bullying will persuade us to let you take them any sooner.
When your nucs are ready for pickup, we will email you with dates to come get them. Because these nucs usually have robust populations, our preferred method of transport is in a ProNuc box. We will provide these boxes and have your nuc installed into the ProNuc. Pick up will be on a predetermined Saturday morning, much like package bee days. We try to make this as easy as possible but the potential for stress or death to the bees forces us to be very strict about how these bees are handled.
Need equipment? Check out our equipment page for beehive prices and availability.
My address is 143 South Brook Rd, Hampton CT. Be careful, sometimes Google Maps software will put you in Scotland, 5 miles from here.
Directions? We are located at 143 South Brook RD, Hampton CT 06247.
If you have any questions, you can always call me at 860-428-1731.
Contact us.
adam@azapiaries.com or call, 860-428-1731.
Adam Fuller, A&Z Apiaries, 143 South Brook Rd, Hampton CT. 06247