Need Bees? BVBG Members Can Reserve & Purchase Bees That Are Available For Local Pick-Up From a CA Supplier
The Big Valley Beekeepers Guild is happy to bring a limited number of nucs from a reputable supplier to our members in the Lodi/San Joaquin area!
AVAILABLE NOW! Nuc orders for spring 2025 are open to those who join BVBG as a member for 2025.
For 2025 – Bees will be supplied by Eric Oliver and Golden West Apiaries, with plans being made for pick-up in Lodi at our May monthly meeting, May 8th, 2025. An email with an update and further instructions will be going out to those who ordered bees around mid-April.
More About Golden West Bees:
Eric Oliver, and Golden West Apiaries are known for producing consistently strong and high quality nucs and queens for beekeepers. Eric’s father, Randy Oliver, and his brother Ian, run the successful migratory beekeeping operation Golden West Bees in the California foothills, taking their hives to almond pollination each year and then selling a thousand nucs each spring. This is all without using any synthetic miticides since the year 2001.
Starting with only a single resistant colony out of 1500, over the years they’ve slowly increased the percentage of their hives that exhibit complete or partial mite resistance. In the first years, heritability was frustratingly low, but by the 2023 season, in some yards over half their colonies maintained infestation rates below 2% over the entire course of the season, right in the middle of crowded apiaries with plenty of mite drift – without the application of any miticides.
The Olivers don’t select for “looks” and use their queens’ variation in color patterns as an indicator that they are maintaining enough genetic diversity in their stock. But they do select for performance. They breed only from queens whose colonies are very gentle and healthy, exhibited above average honey production, and proved strong for almond pollination.
Keep in mind that there’s no such thing as a mite-resistant queen – it’s the workers produced by the queen and the drones that she mated with that confer resistance. That said, the Oliver’s want to make clear that they have not yet “fixed” the genetics for mite resistance into their bloodlines, so they do not yet make any claim that their stock is “mite resistant.”
To learn more about Randy and the development of the Golden West Queen, visit ScientificBeekeeping.com
Nucs will come in a nuc box and will contain 5 deep frames with built-out honeycomb (with frames of honey, pollen, and brood in all stages) and a recently mated queen that is laying and tested.
Please note:
Bees will be available for local pick-up (late at night or early, at sunrise) in the Lodi area, on a future date to be announced. As you might know, nucs are typically ready anytime between April and early May. You will be contacted by email as soon as we have a firm delivery date. We will also post about the pick-up date on our social media.
It will be very important for you to provide us with your most recent contact information and to be able to make your own arrangements for someone to pick up your nuc(s) if you are not available to pick them up on the announced date.
Nuc sales are available for current, paid members only. You can join BVBG for $25 as an individual, or for a dual membership (same household), $40. On the website, please join/renew as a member and complete or update your online profile for 2025; check-out and submit. Next, log out, then log back in again. Go back to the “Order Bees” page, where you should then see the nuc order button as active, so you can purchase and add to your cart.
Nucs are $225 each and we will have a very limited number available. We expect these to go very quickly. Do not wait to order, as they will sell-out.
No cancellations accepted – all sales are final, no refunds will be available at any time, before or after purchase and/or pick-up. Purchase at your own discretion. If you have concerns about your bees and the nuc after pick-up, we will refer you to Eric Oliver so you can receive assistance.
As a reminder, BVBG is not responsible for the quality or condition of the bees, consistency of the nucs, or policies of the supplier. BVBG simply acts as a liaison which allows for a local delivery of nucs for our local members (think of us as the “western union”, which facilitates the transaction to make it easy for the supplier and the buyer).
The vendor of the nucs is dependent on weather conditions in order to prepare the nucs for purchase. New queens require daily temperatures to reach about 70 degrees for mating to take place, which is why the nucs will not be available until mid-spring. We recommend that you use this time to fully prepare for their arrival, having your hive boxes/equipment assembled and in place by the beginning of April. Consider taking a beekeeping class with BVBG to learn about how to properly install your new bees and care for them in the first year. Attend the monthly meetings to get off to a good start!
Have any questions? Contact us BEFORE your purchase!
