Looking for Nucs, colonies, or swarms to start up my hives

[Aiden Wood]

Hi all, my name is Aiden and I'm a new member of OBA excited for the next meeting that I can attend. After a population-related loss of my bees last winter I've been swarm hunting for months with little luck in my traps and call lists. I'm looking for a nucleus, swarm, or some other form of a colony that I can occupy my boxes with. I'm willing to pay as well! I was really looking forward to beekeeping this summer and expanding my hive count. Thanks!

[Vivian Johnson]

Aiden,

Welcome to OBA.  I’ve purchased a nuc, queen cell and mated queen from Jordan Bramwell who is local in Olympia. He raises very gentle bees.  His mobile number is 206-227-2914 and his email is Jordan...@gmail.com he’s very responsive to text, calls and email.  Vivian 

On Fri, Jun 5, 2026 at 6:52 PM Aiden Wood <aiden....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all, my name is Aiden and I'm a new member of OBA excited for the next meeting that I can attend. After a population-related loss of my bees last winter I've been swarm hunting for months with little luck in my traps and call lists. I'm looking for a nucleus, swarm, or some other form of a colony that I can occupy my boxes with. I'm willing to pay as well! I was really looking forward to beekeeping this summer and expanding my hive count. Thanks!

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[Charlie Garrott]

Woods Bee Company in Centralia is also a good source of nucs. https://woodsbeeco.com

It is best to get local nucs and queens if you can. They are generally more adapted to our local conditions than nucs from California or elsewhere.

Swarms are "free", but they bring their share of problems, e.g. mites, disease, etc.

Have you determined the cause of loss of your colonies? Contact me if you want to discuss possible causes and corrections.

Charlie Garrott

[Aiden Wood]

Hi Vivian and Charlie,

Thank you for the recommendation on Jordan Bramwell's bees, I contacted him with great success. I now have a couple of hives rocking and I'm trying to stimulate them to draw out more comb. I'll have feeders in there tomorrow and hopefully get some brood comb from a friend for extra wax-drawing potential. I appreciate the tips and I'm looking forward to the next meeting that I can attend

Aiden

[Nathan Allan]

Ok I am little confused why we aren't recommending our own Club Apiary Bees! These are premium bees that have been looked after by the club and are truly local! See the ad from our Apiary Manager and vice president Bryan:

The apiary is doing so well, we have too many bees!

Bees for sale to OBA members

• Langstroth

• 5-frame nuc for $200 ($180 if you bring back the nuc box)

• 10-frame hive/nuc for $300

• We can customize to 8 or 9-frame, medium, or deep equipment as necessary

Contact vicepr...@olympiabeekeepers.org.

[Vivian Johnson]

Sorry Nathan.  I wasn’t aware we are offering bees.  I’ll try to be more diligent in keeping up with the website and club info.  Vivian

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From: Nathan Allan <pres...@olympiabeekeepers.org>
Sent: Saturday, 20 June 2026 11:41:02
To: OBA Discussions <oba-dis...@olympiabeekeepers.org>
Cc: aiden....@gmail.com <aiden....@gmail.com>; charlie...@gmail.com <charlie...@gmail.com>
Subject: [OBA Discussions] Re: Looking for Nucs, colonies, or swarms to start up my hives

 

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[Nathan Allan]

Vivian make sure you are getting the beeline newsletter. We talk about all of the happenings there too.

Bryan says he can make queens too. I know there are multiple queen cells about to hatch int he apiary right now!

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[Jordan Bramwell]

Nathan,

Everything you've said about the club's bees is also true of my bees. In fact, when I handed management of the OBA apiaries over to Bryan, roughly half of those queens originated from my operation. The club's stock is local in part because it came from my yard, and it's entirely possible that current grafting stock traces back to those same queen lines.

Members should be free to recommend products and stock they have had positive experiences with. That is a normal and healthy part of any beekeeping community.

As an elected officer of a nonprofit, your responsibility is to serve the membership and support the community. The members do not exist to promote leadership's priorities; leadership exists to serve the members.

[Jordan Bramwell]

Thank you Aiden! 

It was a pleasure meeting you and I'm thrilled to hear that your bees are doing well. 

Cheers,
J~

[Matthew Dickey]

Jordan's context is correct about OBA's mission and I appreciate Nathan's enthusiasm that the apiary is finally able to support a limited quantity of Nucs/hives to the local population as an aside from our primary focus of education and outreach. 

Part of the reason the club apiary offerings wasn't mentioned is a timing issue.  We had not socialized that the club Apiary was an available source or had pricing which happened June 8th at our board meeting, the beeline happened on the 15th, and Aiden's initial request came on June 6th. 

The goal needs to be ensuring we as a community are able to supply bees that are healthy and adapted to the Puget Sound microclimate regardless of their source.

As an action item for the rest of the club, looking at the OBA website, we have a section for local vendors who we know and have a proven track record. Located here: https://www.olympiabeekeepers.org/marketplace/ordering-and-purchasing-bees/ 

Given it was last updated in 2024, it is worth revisiting to ensure we have accurate and updated information for local sources. I know I originally got my bees from Rainy Day Bees just because they were on the list of local vendors despite being based out the Seattle area.  

We know this is a fairly common question and we should be able to direct individuals to that page in line with our education goals.

From a personal standpoint, I'm glad we have a diverse variety of local sources to meet the needs of our community and Jordan's willingness to speak to the club about his experiences and methodologies for varroa treatment. I used notes from his presentation as a jumping off point for my initial foray into better treatment planning versus flying blind.

Thanks,

Matt Dickey

Volunteering/Mentorship

[Nathan Allan]

My point was it wasn't even mentioned.  

I don't appreciate being given a public reminder of my duties.  I have to ately recommended your services at least a half dozen times this year. 

[Jordan Bramwell]

Nathan,

Thank you for recommending me. I didn't realize that was happening.

From my perspective, it appeared that recommendations for my business were being discouraged, and I came away with an impression that was clearly incomplete. I'm glad to learn that wasn't the case.

I also want to apologize for handling this publicly. You're right that this would have been better as a private conversation, and I regret not reaching out to you directly first.

If nothing else, I hope we can both acknowledge that there was room for misunderstanding here. If you'd like to clear the air privately, please feel free to reach out.

Cheers,

J~

[Nathan Allan]

It is all good.  Just a little overworked and underpaid here. So for more transparency, that maybe I assume people already know.

The Club Apiary  has a mission to create bees for members, while also providing a space to teach and be involved hands on.  We also want to create local bees (queen and all)

So when recommending places to obtain bees for our members it is typically apiary first.

Then we recommend members, top of that list is Jordan, because he is local and creates his own queens.  He follows a similar philosophy to the club apiary.

Next is Chris in Tenino, who works with his son and sells honey at the Farmers market. We found out this year he also produces NUCS. Although I believe he purchases queens from Hawaii.

Then there are the two commercial ventures that are good to our members, Beeline (Harold) and Woods Bees (Alan Woods)

Yes we should do a better job with our web site, but we are all volunteers and there are only so many hours in the day. Sometimes I do a crap job juggling all the "Stuff" and assume everyone knows what I mean when clearly on reflection most do not. Honestly I'm also still upset about not getting the grant funds this year. However I have meet with the Inspire Olympia people and have a better path for next year. 

[William Baker]

Any possibility of providing club bees to club members at a reduced price? Charging market value prices may not incentivize members to purchase from the club, and reduced prices may incentivize membership. 

- William 

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[Nathan Allan]

Our bees are better, for the same or less. We will go above and beyond to make sure you are happy. 

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[Bryan Henn]

And we only sell bees to members and we are $20 less the woods bee co. for a 5 frame nuc.

Bryan Henn

On Jun 25, 2026, at 7:32 PM, Nathan Allan <pres...@olympiabeekeepers.org> wrote:



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