FROSTY MEADOW

Nucleus Colonies

Frosty Meadow raises 5-frame honey bee nucleus colonies (nucs) in Pittsboro, North Carolina, each headed by a marked, mated queen from one of our two locally developed lines: Caucasian (Apis mellifera caucasica) or Chatham County Local. Pickup only — we do not ship bees.

5 Frame Nucs

Each nucleus colony includes a young, marked, mated queen, 3 frames of brood and bees, and 2 frames of honey and pollen resources — all on drawn comb. The bees are inspected by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture apiary inspector before they leave our yard. We produce a limited number of nucs each season; buyers are contacted in the order reservations are received.

$225

About Our Nucs

A nucleus colony — "nuc" for short — is the best way for most new beekeepers in Chatham County, Orange County, and the surrounding Triangle area to start their first hive, and the easiest way for experienced beekeepers to expand an existing apiary. Unlike a package of bees (which is essentially a queen plus three pounds of unrelated workers shaken together), a nuc is an already-functioning colony in miniature: the queen is laying, the workers recognize her, and there's brood in every stage of development. You transfer the five frames into your own hive body and the colony continues as if nothing happened.

We raise our nucs at our main apiary on Frosty Meadow Drive in Pittsboro, along with satellite yards in nearby Chatham County. The queens in our nucs are not purchased elsewhere and dropped into bees from somewhere else — they are reared, mated, and evaluated right here. Before a queen is placed in a sale nuc, we confirm she is laying well, that her brood pattern is solid, and that her temperament matches what we expect from the line.

Nucs typically become available starting in late spring, when our mating yards have produced enough new queens to pair with the frames of bees and brood we've built up. Fall nucs may also be available depending on how the season has gone. Availability is announced on our Events page and to buyers on our reservation list.

Why Frosty Meadow Bees

Caucasian genetics are rare in the Southeast. Apis mellifera caucasica originated in the Caucasus Mountains between Georgia and Russia. The race is known for exceptional gentleness, heavy propolis production, long foraging tongues that reach nectar other races can't, and the ability to fly in cooler and wetter weather than most bees. Almost every commercial Caucasian queen breeder in the United States operates in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, or Northeast — Frosty Meadow is one of very few sources of Caucasian queens available for local pickup anywhere in the Southeast. Our breeding stock comes originally from Dr. Steve Sheppard's lab at Washington State University (the program that reintroduced Caucasian genetics to the U.S.) and we cross our daughters with selected local drones.

Chatham County Local is our own line. Developed since 2018 from gentle, productive Carniolan-based stock (originally from Sue Cobey's program via Dr. Sheppard, and from an instrumentally inseminated queen line donated to Dana Stahlman by Joe Latshaw), Chatham County Local queens are selected specifically for the conditions of the North Carolina Piedmont: long humid summers, variable winters, a split nectar flow between tulip poplar in spring and goldenrod in fall, and the local pest pressure that comes with all of it.

Both lines are selected for gentleness, productivity, and overwintering. We keep every queen under observation through her first full season before we consider her stock worth breeding from. Queens that don't meet our standards don't make it into sale nucs.

What's Included

• Marked, mated queen — choose Caucasian or Chatham County Local (subject to availability)
• 3 frames of brood in all stages (eggs, larvae, capped brood) and bees to cover them
• 2 frames of honey, pollen, and resources
• All frames on drawn comb — no plastic foundation, no new wax for the colony to build
• Queens reared, mated, and evaluated on-site in Chatham County
• Bees inspected by North Carolina apiary inspector before sale
• Locally raised in Pittsboro, NC since 2018 — no shipping stress, no southern migration

Reserve Your Nuc

Nucs sell out quickly each season. Submit your information below to get on our notification list — we'll contact you as soon as availability is confirmed.