Thank you for choosing Les’s Bees. You’ve come to the right place. I guarantee your satisfaction with everything you purchase from me.

95% of my bees are New World Carniolans. I chose these excellent bees for their gentleness, mite resistance, rapid spring buildup, and honey production. The remainder are Italians that I’m using for experimentation purposes.

I believe these are the best bees available anywhere! And, it’s nothing I have done other than choosing the right breeder to get started with.

Hives, Nucleus Colonies, Packages, and Queens are available during active beekeeping season, April through September. Contact me for details. Les – 360-303-0396 OR to order online:

CLICK HERE. NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR SPRING 2026

The following will be updated as new info comes in:

Pickup day will be on a Saturday, hopefully in the beginning of the month of April. The nucs should be nice and fat by then.

Pickup Hours: 9am – 4:30

Pickup will be at the Bartleson Farm, 986 E. Laurel Rd, about 6 miles North of Bellingham.

It will be a fun, busy day!

There’s only one driveway, so give the outbound vehicles right of way.

NUCS

Nucs will come in a 5-frame Pro Nuc. You’ll get an unmarked, laying queen with 3+ frames of her brood in all stages of growth and 2 frames with food. The nuc will be full of bees.

I have a video on YouTube of how to install a nuc HERE.  There’s an extra step I use to increase the size of the brood chamber and increase your colony’s growth by 40%. The video is HERE.

Some results of this method can be found HERE.

PACKAGES

Packages consist of 3 pounds of bees with a freshly laying, unmarked, caged queen, ready to go back to work once released from the cage. I recommend spending the extra money to buy a nuc. Packages have a higher probability of the bees killing or replacing the queen and nucs are 3 to 4 weeks ahead in their development as a colony ready to produce honey during their first blackberry flow.

QUEENS

Queens will come marked and in a Mini California Cage with candy plug.

EDUCATION

Three things are recommended to begin beekeeping – Take a class, join your local club, and get a mentor. If you don’t feel fully prepared to start your beekeeping, there will be great classes coming up. I will be teaching a class in February and Master Beekeeper Dawn Beck will be teaching a class through Mt Baker Beekeepers Association and Skagit Valley Beekeepers Association that includes Beginning and Apprentice level materials.

I provide mentoring through text for all of my nuc purchasers.

WHEN YOU GET YOUR NUC

I want you to be more than satisfied with your purchase. It’s YOUR responsibility to possess the basic knowledge to check your nuc for quality. Again, it is YOUR responsibility to have enough knowledge to identify a healthy colony.

As you install your nuc (and each check after), carefully examine the brood on each frame.

Here’s a picture of a nice, healthy one. It’s a little light on honey and pollen, but the brood is capped and needs no more food until hatching.

And, here’s a poor brood pattern.

If you see a frame with spotty brood something like this, I want to know immediately. I want everyone to be happy with their purchase, but I can’t replace nucs after not hearing anything for weeks. Feel free to message me with ANY questions. Pictures are very helpful.

If you use Facebook, be sure to join my group – Les’s Bees – Beekeeping in the Pacific Northwest

Les – 360-303-0396

As BeeKEEPERS, it’s our job to help the bees do what they want to do (except swarm 🙂). Nucs, and especially packages REQUIRE feeding to help them get started. The goal is to fill 2 deep boxes with healthy bees, hopefully in time to make a little honey. For spring feeding, use 1:1 (1 part white granulated sugar to 1 part hot water) syrup. I suggest an additional pollen patty at the minimum.

QUALITY OF LIFE

My overriding beekeeping emphasis is now the health of my bees. By focusing on bee health, all of my other goals should follow. I want my bees in prime condition. Not only should this help me with my goals, it should reduce the possibility of disease entering my apiaries.

Several great products are now on the market to enhance the nutrition in the food we feed our bees or contribute directly to our bee’s health. Through my personal research, I’ve come up with the supplements I think are best for my bees (and what I’m offering in my store).

A product we can feed in spring, or preferably, year-round is HiveAlive.

It comes in liquid and fondant form. During late winter/early spring, the 2.2 pound fondant patties are a handy way to give your bees some added carbs and nutrition – just cut an access hole in the plastic covering and lay directly on the frames. The bees love it. But, using the liquid is best later in spring to support rapid buildup. Two teaspoons in a gallon of syrup does it. The main ingredients of HiveAlive are Seaweed Extracts, Thyme, and a little Lemongrass Oil. But, the magic (science) is in the Seaweed. It naturally contains a number of antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. Using the product has been proven to produce larger, stronger colonies, more honey, and reduced winter losses.

Another supplement that I’m using is the SuperDFM from Strong Microbials. I’m trying out their new BeeBites, too.

These are mainly pre and probiotics, designed to improve gut health. I don’t know about you, but I take the human form of both daily. Scientists have found that our digestive system has its own nervous system and is directly connected to our central nervous system. They haven’t discovered everything about how the two interact, but they’re saying the Entric Nervous System (ENS) may be equally as important as our Central Nervous System (CNS). But, I suppose the short story is by providing my bees with everything they need for their machinery to perform at their highest levels, they’ll produce more and stronger bees and make more honey.

Lastly, I’m using Global Pollen Patties with Apis Biologix Rocket Fuel to kickstart their brood production. The Rocket Fuel is one of the latest developments in honey bee nutrition. They studied the Amino Acid profile of pollen and have created a product that when combined with the protein in the patties, converts all or most of the protein to the makeup of natural pollen. The bees love it and it fires up the queen and brood rearing in the hive.

I’ll have all of these health products available at the farm for purchase.

Please bring cash or check as I won’t have time to do credit transactions! All of these products, along with a complete selection of beekeeping equipment, are also available now in the store. If you don’t see what you need on my website, shoot me a text at 360-303-0396. If I don’t have it, I’ll help you find it. And, I’m always available by text or phone for any beekeeping questions.

Check the website and store HERE.

The new HiveIQ

I can’t write this without a mention of these hives. I started with one test hive a couple years ago. I added a nuc to it in late spring, 2023. It grew to a full double deep by fall and successfully overwintered. In spring of ‘24, it provided the frames and bees for 2 nucs, which I added queens to and sold. Later in the fall, it was my top honey producer with 21 frames of honey.

At $279 without frames, the kits are expensive, but they can pay for themselves the first year. I’ve got 10 in my yards now and building 30 more. I can see these replacing our wooden hives completely. If you’re interested, come by and take a peek.

Thank you for trusting me to supply your bees!

Les’s Bees

2427 Vista Drive, Bellingham WA

98229

360-303-0396

Les Scott

Email: les@leszbees.com

Website: leszbees.com

Cell: 360-303-0396