How to Buy Your First Bees in the UK: A Complete Beginner’s Guide

Getting your first bees is one of the most exciting steps you will take as a new beekeeper. It is also one of the most consequential. Buy the wrong bees at the wrong time from the wrong source, and your first season can be frustrating, expensive, and disheartening. Buy well, and you will have a productive, manageable colony that teaches you the craft properly from day one.

This guide walks you through every stage of the process, from understanding what type of bee to look for, to registering your hive, to what questions to ask a seller before handing over any money. All advice is specific to conditions, regulations, and best practice in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Step 1: Join a Local Beekeeping Association Before You Buy Anything

Before you spend a single penny on bees or equipment, join your local beekeeping association. The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) is the largest national body, with over 25,000 members across more than 80 regional associations in England and Wales. Scotland has the Scottish Beekeepers’ Association (SBA), Wales has the Welsh Beekeepers’ Association (WBKA), and Northern Ireland has the Ulster Beekeepers’ Association (UBKA).

Membership costs roughly £30 to £60 per year depending on your local association, and it is worth every penny for a beginner. Here is what you get:

Access to hands-on training days and beginners’ courses, usually run from March to July
Mentoring from experienced local beekeepers who know your area’s forage, climate, and bee behaviour
Third-party public liability insurance, which is essential if your bees ever sting a neighbour or a passing dog
Access to the association’s apiary, where you can handle bees before committing to your own colony
A network of local sellers you can trust

Your local association is also the single best place to find your first bees. Many associations run nucleus colony sales specifically for beginners in late spring, with vetted, locally adapted bees sold by experienced members.

Step 2: Register on BeeBase

BeeBase is the National Bee Unit’s (NBU) official database for beekeepers in England and Wales, operated by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). Registering is free and takes five minutes at beebase.apha.gov.uk. In Scotland, registration is managed through sasa.gov.uk. In Northern Ireland, contact the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

Registration is not currently a legal requirement in most of the UK, but it is strongly recommended and is considered best practice by the BBKA. When you register, government bee inspectors can contact you if there is a notifiable disease outbreak in your area, such as European Foulbrood (EFB) or American Foulbrood (AFB). Both are statutory notifiable diseases under the Bee Diseases and Pests Control (England) Order 2006, meaning you are legally obliged to report suspected cases to the NBU.

Register before your bees arrive. An inspector may want to visit a new beekeeper during their first season, and being on the register makes that process straightforward.

Step 3: Understand Your Options — What Type of Bees Can You Buy in the UK?

Not all honeybees are the same, and the type you choose will affect how easy or difficult your first season is. Here is a practical breakdown of the options available in the UK.

The Native British Black Bee (Apis mellifera mellifera)

The native dark European honeybee, sometimes called the British black bee or the Northern European honeybee, is increasingly championed by UK conservation groups and by organisations such as the Native Bee Breeding Group (part of the BBKA). This subspecies evolved over thousands of years in the British Isles and is well adapted to the cool, wet, and unpredictable British climate.

Native bees are typically frugal with stores, meaning they do not consume honey as rapidly during long damp springs. They can fly in lower temperatures than many imported subspecies, which matters in Scotland or the north of England where the season is shorter. The Galtee Bee Breeding Group in Ireland and several UK breeders actively work to preserve and distribute pure native stock.

The drawback for beginners is that native bees can be more defensive than some imported types. A well-bred native colony managed correctly is perfectly workable, but it is worth being aware of this characteristic before choosing.

Italian Bees (Apis mellifera ligustica)

Italian bees are the most widely kept honeybee in the world and are popular in the UK for their gentle temperament and prolific brood-rearing. They are often recommended for beginners because they are calm on the comb and easy to inspect.

The main disadvantage in the UK is that Italian bees can build up large colonies rapidly in spring, which means they consume a great deal of stores. In a poor British summer, this can lead to colonies running short of food if the beekeeper does not monitor closely. They are also more prone to drifting between hives when placed close together.

Buckfast Bees

Buckfast bees were developed by Brother Adam at Buckfast Abbey in Devon over several decades during the twentieth century. They are a hybrid strain bred for productivity, disease resistance, and docility. Buckfast bees remain extremely popular in the UK and are commercially available from several reputable breeders.

They tend to be highly productive honey gatherers and are generally easy to handle. However, the temperament of Buckfast bees can vary significantly between breeders, and poorly bred or old queens can produce defensive colonies. Always buy Buckfast bees from a named, reputable breeder with a track record of selling calm stock.

Carniolan Bees (Apis mellifera carnica)

Carniolans originate from central Europe and are known for their rapid spring build-up and strong instinct to swarm. They are very gentle bees and perform well in the UK, but their swarming tendency means beginners need to learn swarm management quickly. They are available from specialist importers and some UK breeders.

What the BBKA Recommends for Beginners

The BBKA generally advises beginners to start with a local colony of whatever type predominates in their area, obtained from a reputable local beekeeper or association. Local bees are already adapted to local forage patterns and disease pressures. Buying locally also reduces the biosecurity risk associated with moving bees over long distances.

Step 4: Decide What Format to Buy — Package, Nucleus, or Full Colony?

Bees are sold in several formats, each with different advantages and risks for a beginner.

A Package of Bees

A package is a screened box containing approximately 1.5 kg to 2 kg of bees (roughly 10,000 to 15,000 workers) and a mated queen in a small cage. There is no comb, no brood, and no frames. The bees are poured into the hive and must draw comb from scratch.

Packages are more common in North America than in the UK. They are sometimes available from importers but are generally not recommended for UK beginners. The process of installing a package is more complex than installing a nucleus colony, and a package in April in, say, Yorkshire faces a long wait before foraging conditions improve enough to sustain the colony while building comb.

A Nucleus Colony (Nuc)

A nucleus colony — universally called a “nuc” in the UK — is the recommended starting point for most beginners. A nuc typically consists of five frames of bees, including frames of capped and open brood, food stores (honey and pollen), and a laying queen. The frames fit directly into a standard National hive or equivalent.

The advantages of a nuc are significant:

The colony is already established and the queen is already laying
You can immediately inspect the brood and assess the colony’s health
The colony is small enough to manage confidently as a beginner
The bees have begun to build their social structure, making them calmer than a new package

Nucs are sold on wooden frames (which can be transferred to your own hive boxes) or in corrugated cardboard nuc boxes that act as temporary hives. Budget between £180 and £280 for a quality nuc from a reputable UK seller in 2024–2025. Prices vary by region and by the quality of the queen.

A Full Colony

A full colony is an established hive with a brood box, one or more supers, frames, bees, and a queen. These are sometimes available from beekeepers who are retiring or reducing their apiaries.

Full colonies are not ideal for beginners unless they come with thorough support from the seller. You cannot easily assess the health, temper, or queen quality of a full colony without experience. There is also a higher risk of buying in disease unknowingly. If you do consider buying a full colony, insist on having it inspected by an NBU bee inspector or a very experienced local mentor before you complete the purchase.

Step 5: Choose the Right Hive Type Before Your Bees Arrive

You need to know what hive type you are buying before you choose your bees, because the frames in a nuc must be compatible with the hive you plan to use.

The National Hive

The British National hive is by far the most common hive type in the UK. It uses a square brood box and smaller super boxes, both sized for British Standard (BS) frames. The vast majority of nucs sold in England and Wales are on National frames. If you are not sure what to buy, start with a National.

Moving Forward

Once you have the fundamentals in place, the possibilities open up considerably. The UK offers fantastic opportunities for anyone interested in this hobby, and with the right foundation you will be well placed to make the most of them.