The last few years I have observed an abundance of bad bee nucs for sale in the Vancouver area. Last year a number of beekeepers in our beekeeping coop bought nucs from a local retailer, all of which contained swarm cells. As a result all of the nucs swarmed within the first week creating smaller nucs and very small swarms. The owner of the company explained that the nucs were made by inexperienced workers who improperly made the nucs with swarm cells and newly introduced queens.
This week a few nucs were bought by beekeepers in our organization from another beekeeping supply retailer. The nuc boxes had scotch tape on the entrance (half attached), the lids were not attached, the brood comb was black (old) and the nuc boxes were older. The nucs contained 2 frames of old, spotty brood, 2 wet frames, a queen cage and no laying queen. Both of these retailers are good, knowledgeable beekeeping suppliers and the criticism is directed more towards the lack of long term bee breeders not the bee retailers (though the argument could be made that you are responsible for what you are selling).
The bottom line is that we have a very poor, unsustainable honey bee population in greater Vancouver with most of the bees produced done so for a quick dollar rather than creating a legacy of strong, survivor stock. Mark Winston, an SFU professor, biologist and beekeeper produced a study 30 years ago that suggested it was economically feasible to produce honey bee nucs and packages in the Fraser Valley (Package and Nucleus production in the Fraser Valley). This potential has not been realized and instead we have become dependent on imported packages and poorly created nucs. Good breeders in our area produce relatively few nucs and queens that don't begin to match the demand. Part of the reason is the extreme property values that make beekeeping not economically feasible in the Greater Vancouver area.
Beekeepers ask me constantly if I can recommend a good bee nuc or queen source and I can't because the good sources are sold out before the bees are ready. If anyone knows of a good source of bees let us know. Bad nuc rant over.
