In this No Nonsense Beekeeping episode, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey provides a November snapshot of his overwintered nucleus colonies (nucs). He explains that the apiary holds 250 nucs for sale this year, with 150 already pre‑ordered, and that the remaining stock will likely be sold by Christmas or early January. The video showcases two representative nucs, highlighting their large size, strong temperament, abundant stores, and active foraging despite mild autumn weather. Edwards notes the use of fondant feeding, regular inspections, and the F1 Buckfast genetics that underpin the colonies' vigor. He anticipates that as temperatures drop the nucs will cluster, then enter a brief broodless period during which he plans to treat them with Apibioxal (vaping) to control varroa before the rapid spring expansion. The segment ends with a call to subscribe and a reminder that the nucs are shipped across the UK.
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In this video, I'm going to give you a snapshot of how my overwintered nucs are looking in November. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Down at the River Apiary today, putting fondant on all of the colonies down here. We've got 250 nucs to sell this year. We've already taken orders for 150 as of the middle of November. So we're fast running out. I just thought I'd do a final little video just for anybody on my channel who's keen to get a nuc for next year. We will run out kind of either before Christmas or early into January. This is what the nucs are looking like now. Really good, top quality nucs, good F1 Buckfast genetics. We send them all the way across the UK. Just thought I'd do a quick video showing you inside, showing you how they're getting on, and then we'll follow it up later on in the year. So I'll get my veil on, I'll get over to the nucs, and I'll show you how good they're looking. So here we are at the nucs. These are the 2 that we've got in this apiary. Didn't put loads in this apiary. I've got them dotted around everywhere else, but down here it's a little bit far away from me, so I'm not here kind of every week. I like to check on the nucs really often. Just coming down though, doing the checks on these ones, and I just know they're going to be bursting at the seams. So there we go, this is what the nuc's looking like in the middle of November. Very, very big, strong, nice temperament nucs. They're so active still at this time of the year because it's been so mild. Got lots of stores in here as well. Really nice heavy nuc. You can see from the bees though, these are big strong colonies. As soon as that temperature drops, they're going to start clustering up, but for the time being they're still out, they're still getting a bit of pollen. You can see there, that bee's been out and gone and got some pollen. They're just getting themselves ready for that rapid spring expansion, and they look really, really good. So there you go, quick look inside some of the overwintering nucs that we've got for this year. Really big, strong nucs, all of them. The build-up going into winter has just been fantastic. Hopefully we get a nice short, preferably cold winter, just to get that snap down, get that broodless period so we can vape them with some apibioxal, and then they will move into spring as super healthy colonies that are ready for a rapid spring expansion. Hope you enjoyed that video. Hope you found it useful. As always, please hit the subscribe button. Please hit the bell so you're notified of every video. And I'll see you next time. Bye.
