Where to Buy Bees and Beekeeping Equipment: Packages, Nucs and Suppliers

Bees

Packages

Two, three or five pounds of bees with a caged queen and a can of syrup; Penn State calls the 3-pound package the best buy, about 10,000 workers. Shipped by some suppliers (Mann Lake), pickup only at others (Betterbee). Order the fall before (Penn State).

Nucs

Four or five frames of comb, brood, stores and a laying queen; more expensive and easier (Penn State). On Langstroth frames from most suppliers (Michigan State), so check deep versus medium and your frame width. Betterbee's are pickup only in Greenwich, New York, spring or overwintered. Local clubs are where most nucs change hands.

Local bees

UGA: buy two established colonies locally. Michigan State: join a club first and buy from a local supplier. A local nuc is adapted to the climate, inspected before purchase, and comes with a beekeeper's phone number. The club is also the extractor, the mentor and the swarm list.

Equipment

Source	Best for	Shipping	Notes
Mann Lake	Assembled kits, tools, feeders, extractors, bees	At checkout	Widest catalogue; New-Bee kit $229.99
Dadant	Beginner kit with gear and book	Free over $150 (banner, October 9, 2026)	Kit #1 $226.95
Betterbee	How-to pages, polystyrene, Northeast pickup bees	At checkout; bees pickup only	Basic kit $259 to $262
Galena Farms	Woodenware	At checkout	Busy Bees $199; Hoover; NuBee
Amazon	Heavy woodenware, tools, gear	Prime	Hoover (sold by Galena), BeeCastle, Honey Lake, MayBee; check that a listing states dimensions
Foxhound Bee Company	Traps, feeders, EasyCheck	Direct or Amazon	Beetle Jail $25 for 12 direct

When to order

When	Order	Source
Fall	Bees for spring	Penn State
Winter	Woodenware, to assemble and paint before spring (cure time per Betterbee)	Betterbee painting guide
Late winter	Gear, smoker, tools, feeder, sugar
Spring	Second deep, supers, nuc box
Year two	Extractor, if the club's is not enough	Mann Lake's two-season note

Registration

Pennsylvania requires registration of any apiary (Penn State); Florida of any number of colonies (UF/IFAS); Oregon at five or more colonies (Oregon State); Michigan has no state registration but city ordinances and HOA rules apply (Michigan State). Those were the four we started with; our beehive registration rules for all 50 states give every state's deadline and fee, each linked to its law. Registration is also how the state inspector finds you when a disease is reported nearby, which is in your interest.

What to skip

Skip bees from a classified ad with no inspection. Skip buying equipment before the bee school tells you which (Oregon State's order: course, then bees, then equipment). And skip waiting until spring to order bees.