Bees For Sale
Looking for bees for sale in the UK? We breed and rear our own queen bees and colonies here in Northumberland, with bees available to order online for collection or UK delivery depending on the product.
For 2027, we have simplified our live-bee offering around our Northumberland Buckfast mated queens and overwintered nucleus colonies, while continuing our wider queen-breeding programme in Northumberland.
Whether you’re looking to buy a queen bee, order a nucleus colony or need a replacement queen urgently, you can find our current availability below.
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Northumberland Buckfast Queen Bee
£59.00 This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Overwintered Nucleus Colony
£350.00 This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Mated Queen Bee – Next Day Delivery
£59.00
Queen Bees For Sale
We breed and rear our own queen bees in Northumberland, with more than a decade of selection behind our current breeding population.
For 2027, our principal commercial queen is the Northumberland Buckfast — a naturalised, locally adapted British Buckfast breeding population developed through successive generations of commercial selection.
Northumberland Buckfast Mated Queens
Our planned 2027 release consists of just 400 mated queens, available across four scheduled release dates from May to August
Need a Queen Bee Urgently?
When surplus mated queens become available between scheduled releases, they are offered through our Next Day Mated Queen service.
If they’re showing In Stock, they’re in stock and ready to go.
Nucleus Colonies of Bees For Sale
For beekeepers looking to buy a complete colony of bees, our overwintered nucleus colonies provide an established colony headed by one of our own Northumberland Buckfast queens.
Our 2027 nucs are supplied as 5-frame BS National colonies in wooden travelling boxes and are available for collection from our bee farm in Northumberland on our scheduled May collection dates
Other Bees & Queen Bees
Our breeding programme extends beyond the Northumberland Buckfast, although not every type of bee we breed is offered for general sale each season.
British Black / Dark Queen Bees
Our British Black Bee and Apis mellifera mellifera breeding programme continues, but Northumberland Dark Queens will not be offered for general sale during 2027 while we concentrate on further breeding and selection.
Selected British Black Bee genetics also form part of the longer breeding history behind our Northumberland Buckfast population.
Virgin Queen Bees & Queen Cells
For 2027, we are no longer taking advance seasonal pre-orders for routine production of virgin queen bees or queen cells.
Where suitable queens or cells are surplus to our own breeding requirements, limited batches may be released through our online queen shop during the season.
Package Bees
Package bees will not be produced for sale during the 2027 season.
We’ve retained our dedicated Package Bees page for beekeepers researching package bees, how they differ from nucleus colonies and the different ways of establishing a new colony.
For beekeepers looking to buy a complete colony in 2027, our overwintered nucleus colonies are the principal option.
Buying Bees From a British Bee Farm
When you buy bees online, it’s worth understanding where those bees come from and how they have been bred.
Our queens are bred and reared within our own commercial bee-farming operation in Northumberland. Breeding decisions are informed by pedigree, controlled breeding, daughter testing and the performance of colonies under working conditions.
Our objective is to maintain and develop breeding populations here in Britain rather than relying upon the repeated introduction of imported breeder queens.
For beekeepers interested in the genetics, pedigrees and selection behind our bees, our dedicated Queen Breeding page explains the programme in considerably greater detail.
Looking for Bees For Sale?
Explore our current bees and queen bees for sale, including scheduled Northumberland Buckfast queens, overwintered nucleus colonies and any mated queens currently available for immediate dispatch.
How to Buy Bees Online
Our available bees and queen bees can be ordered directly through our website.
Mated queens can be delivered within the UK on their selected release date, while our overwintered nucleus colonies are collection only from Haltwhistle, Northumberland.
If you need a replacement queen urgently, check our Next Day Mated Queens listing. When that product shows In Stock, queens are in stock and ready to go.
Disease Assurance Scheme in Honeybees (DASH)
Northumberland Honey Co are members of the Bee Farmers Association, and are members of the Disease Assurance Scheme in Honeybees ensuring the highest possible quality of bees.
Northumberland is also lucky in that it has one of the lowest rates of notifiable brood disease in the country with both European and American Foulbrood virtually unheard of in our area. You can review this on the disease incidence map on bee base.
Coupled with our closed system of not collecting swarms, bringing bees in or migrating our bees outside of our area we are hopeful to retain this low disease status.
Where-ever you buy bees from, please ensure you check the disease status on the NBU disease incidence map on bee base of the area close to where the bees are coming from, you certainly don’t want to be buying in any problems!
