**I'm more interested in educating you than making a buck*
(the dirty secret in beekeeping is that you can make more $$ selling bees than the honey)
*This is information and advice I wish I was given when starting out.*
***There is WAY too much beekeeping misinformation / marketing / propaganda out there that makes me ill.***
**Planet Over Profits**
Local Overwintered Honey Bee Nucleus Colonies Nucs Spring 2026 Honeybees - $200 (Pottstown Kenilworth Exton)
Non-native agricultural livestock rare superorganism honeybees.
There are no native honeybees to the entire US continent.
Beekeeping is NOT conservation, it's agriculture. It's not saving any animal nor helping the environment.
Beekeeping is basically a part time job.
Our local inspector says beekeeping is more of a lifestyle than a hobby. I agree.
TRUE CONSERVATION is habitat restoration with NATIVE plants.
Less lawns = More life.
Read the WHOLE ad listing please to the bottom BEFORE emailing us.
This isn't just marketing but it is always advised to start with 2 colonies of different genetics/sources. That way you have something to compare to and for sustainability. One hive can help provide resources to the other (by the beekeeper) if you run into a queenless situation or bad/defensive genetics. I am more interested in educating you than just making a buck and trying to make you a "repeat" customer because all your bees die every year. Many are fine with selling whatever to whomever. Not me.
***SOAP BOX***
PLEASE do not start beekeeping if you have not already committed to learning, love to learn, spent a year shadowing, studying, belong to no local beekeeping clubs, and never attended any meetings or classes.
You don't need a honeybee colony for your small veggie garden. Honeybees pollinate very few if anything most people grow to eat. Example: they cannot pollinate tomatoes, only bigger stronger bumble bees can buzz pollinate them. Other flowers are too small or too deep. Native bees and other pollinators do that fine. See chart the last pic. Planting native plants provide habitat for native pollinator that then in turn can pollinate your veggie gardens.
A 2 hour, one day class, or watching a couple YouTube videos does not prepare you for beekeeping, it only gets you excited to spend money. I will not set you up for failure. I am more interested in educating you than just making a buck.
Beekeeping is NOT conservation, it's agriculture, animal husbandry with non-native invasive livestock honeybees. I do not want to give my bees to unprepared people. There is no rush to start this expensive time consuming hobby. Do not bee impulsive.
There is no such thing as "natural" hands off (treatment free) beekeeping, there is taking care of your livestock properly or not. Good animal husbandry or lazy neglect. There are IPM methods, organic and non-organic chemicals to use to help control varroa mite levels which directly effects colony health (disease and virus levels).
*** You must ask and bee familiar with how the bees you purchased were treated for varroa mites, if you don't follow the same methods or timing you will bee more likely to lose your colonies in the fall / winter. You don't want life support bees that need 6 treatments a year to stay alive. We do PROPER mite counts (alcohol wash or powdered double sugar roll ) in June/July to start treating by 7/15 *IF* the colony needs some help, typically with organic formic acid, approved to have honey supers on with. Most all other treatments cannot have honey supers on the hive during treatment INCLUDING organic oxalic acid. We do not blind treat every colony. We do mite counts and know which colonies are good and which are not so good which then get requeened if mite counts are too high after treating. (in high teens, 20s+ per 100 bees from a 1/2 cup 300 bee sample). You must also sample bees from open brood frames, we gather bees from at least 2 frames+ from each hive to do proper mite counts. THIS is proper animal husbandry, bee farming.****
Beekeeping is not helping the environment nor "saving" any bee. More non-native honeybees only puts more strain on limited resources that our native pollinators need most. Just more taking, no giving.
True Conservation is creating more habitat with native plants trees, less useless lawns.
(ie, the give back in a give/take relationship)
Beekeeping actually has negative impacts on native pollinators and the ecosystem.
Honeybees fly further and in vast foraging #s to hoard all the food they can.
Honeybees are transmitting diseases/viruses and varroa mites to native bees.
Honeybees have high plant fielty / fidelity. They seek out large nectar sources to recruit their sister foragers via the famous waggle dance. Trees are the largest nectar source? #2? In my opinion non-native invasive plants. So if honeybees are pollinating more non-native plants than native plants, and negatively impacting native pollinators, then they are not good for the ecosystem. They have only been on this continent around 400 years, came over with english settlers.
The native plants, native bees and pollinators have evolved for THOUSANDS of years together creating very specialized relationships. The foundation of the ecosystem. Ecosystem basics in fact.
We have over 400 Native bee species in PA alone, over 4000 in the US. None are honeybees, none are rare superorganisms. Most are solitary. Bumble bees make small colonies of a few dozen to couple hundred but only queens overwinter alone, in leaf piles, ground holes, abandoned rodent nests, etc.
We belong to 5 beekeeping clubs and no one discusses this. It took us over 2 years to learn they were not native to this entire continent. The several years more to learn the negative impacts they can have. Good for people. Like most all agriculture, not good for the environment / ecosystem. We've been downsizing since and still promote Apitherapy: the healthy hive products to benefit human health: Raw honey (with it's vitamins, enzymes and trace pollen, never heated) pollen (super food, super protein) beeswax, propolis (plant medicine), royal jelly, bee venom, bee sting therapy ( help with Lyme's disease, MS, arthritis, and on)
***SOAP BOX OVER ***
Most Importantly:
All our hives are registered with the PA Dept. of Agriculture. (PA Bee Law)
We are licensed & inspected to sell bees in PA.
You will need to show your PA Apiary License to buy bees from us. * See info below at bottom.
Mostly 5 deep frame nucs but I should have a couple medium nucs available.
***We can sell single and double deep 10fr complete hives as well, which is more money of course.***
Feel free to reserve a nuc or two for Spring 2023 with a $50 down payment. Cash, check, paypal or Venmo options.
All origins are local overwintered stock, never from commercial migratory pollination run leftover mixed colony packages (with some artificially inseminated queen NOT their own queen mother) or brought up from overwintering in the South that don't know how to handle winters yet.
Chester County bees only here. (mutts, no straight races/species. The more genetic variety the better)
Usually I like to close the nucs up the night prior to pick up so all the foragers are home. You can return my nuc boxes in a week or so. Sooner the better. I do have some cardboard nucs I can sell for you to keep that way no return needed. $20 each. (I prefer to keep them actually)
We are downsizing since learning about the negative impacts beekeeping can have. We only wish to have 3-4 full size colonies with max 4 nucs at all 3 bee yards to be mindful of the possible negative effects our beloved non-native Western Honeybee could have on the native pollinators who travel far less distance for food.
We feel we bee keep differently than most. More mindful of the impact of non-native honeybees on our more important native pollinators. Our goal is no more than 4 full sized hives and 4 small nucleus support colonies at each location (bee yard / apiary site). We had 4 sites, now 3, probably 2 soon.
We are a 6 member family who all play hockey (a hat trick is 3 goals in a game by one player, fans will throw hats onto the ice to celebrate). We have 3 bee yards (apiary sites) in Chester County. (Kenilworth, Glenmoore, & {Glenmoore/Downingtown/Coatesville junction}) We use 10 frame Langstroth bee hives and keep all 12+ hives at least 15 feet apart. This is healthier for each honeybee colony. The more spacing the healthier the hive.
We have our PA Apiary License & Our PA Limited Food License to sell our Hat Trick Honey in Stores
Justin
Hat Trick Honey
Members of:
Wild Ones of SE PA (Native Plant educators)
North Coventry EAC Board (Environmental Advisory Council)
CCBA Chester County Beekeeper Association
MCBA Montgomery County Beekeepers Association
PBG Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild
BSBA Berks County Beekeepers Association
PSBA Pennsylvania State Beekeeper Association
EAS Eastern Apiculture Society
AAS American Apitherapy Society
**** Interested in Beekeeping? (please read all info below) *****
More non-native honeybees and more beekeepers is the answer to zero problems we have.
CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder was an agricultural (produced) crisis, not an environmental crisis.
Year One = no bees. Shadow several beekeepers near you and learn learn learn. SO MUCH TO LEARN. This is best way to start. Remember, beekeeping is NOT conservation, it's agriculture, bee farming. Honeybee beekeeping does not help our environment, only native plants do that. Honeybees have some negative impacts on native pollinators & in fact, honeybees may actually help spread non-native plants and worse, invasive non-native plants.
Too many honey bee colonies in one location will also out-compete all the other native pollinators and take too much of the food sources. Honeybees travel several miles for food and hoard all they can for overwintering as a cluster of thousands of bees. ONLY honeybees do this. There are no native honeybees in the US, or this entire continent in fact. The native pollinators only travel 30 yards , some up to a couple hundred yards for food. (some bumble bees can go a mile)
IMPORTANT:
The Western/European Honeybee is NOT native to this continent, but is an agricultural livestock and rare superorganism. Beekeeping is NOT conservation, it's agriculture. Bee Farming. Honeybees do not need saving, nor are there any "wild" populations that need replenishing. They are not native, therefore cannot be wild. Sure, there are escaped feral colonies surviving unmanaged but they don't actually belong here. We do NOT need honeybees for our environment. We need non-native honeybees for commercial agriculture pollination and for healthy hive products like honey, wax, pollen, propolis, bee bread, royal jelly, and bee venom. We do NOT need honeybees for our native ecosystem and food webs. We have plenty of native pollinators for that purpose in our North American environment who have evolved here for thousands of years with the local native flora and fauna. All the flies, moths, beetles, wasps, hornets, butterflies, native bees, hummingbirds, bats, all help pollinate our ecosystem.
"Save the bees" actually is meant for the native bees, over 400 native bee species in PA alone, over 4000 in the US. Most all are solitary, and only queens overwinter or larval cocoons, in the ground, in hollow dead plants, in leaf piles. Brush piles are very important habitat. Dead stems are often used year 2 after plant died. Did you know fire flies spend the first 2 years of their life in the ground? (keep chemicals off lawns please)
How to help the bees and more importantly all native pollinators?
*** NATIVE PLANTS. ***
*** MOW LESS, PLANT MORE. ***
*** There's nothing better you can do to help "save the bees" than to plant more NATIVE flowers and trees ! ***
(save the bees = native bees, not honeybees)
Use no chemicals/poisons. If you "must", after plants/trees bloom AND after dusk.
We have been fooled into thinking a green invasive turf grass lawn is some kind of status symbol if success but it's actually a desert for nature and provides nothing for animals and insects.
*************If you don't USE it, why mow it????***********
*************If you don't USE it, why mow it????***********
*************If you don't USE it, why mow it????***********
We are SO brainwashed right?
An acre of nothing, turf grass is "beautiful" vs. flowers? That's accomplishment? Proud of nothingness?
Do not use any insecticides herbicides and fungicides on your property. Especially when flowers and trees are blooming. Please stop poisoning the planet! Research native pollinator plants/shrubs/bushes/trees/flowers & try to plant as much as you can. Bonus you'll have less yard to mow.
SHRINK YOUR LAWN !
SHRINK YOUR LAWN !
SHRINK YOUR LAWN !
*** Why battle/fight/steal from nature every weekend when you could be Harmonizing with it? ***
Look up any Doug Tallamy YouTube video from 2020 or 2019 on his recent book tour for "Nature's Best Hope". He is a professor at University of Delaware and lives in Oxford Chester County. He puts it perfectly why native plants are so important and how everyone who owns land has a duty to provide for nature. His prior book "Bringing Nature Home" changed how my wife thinks deeply.
She started up the Wild Ones of SE PA chapter. A national non-profit to promote and educate about the vital importance of native plants.
Jessie would love you give you a Yarden tour anytime to show how much life you can bring back to just one acre one plant at a time. Yarden = garden + yard. Quiet Tour Link:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XxpO6GZ_yds&feature=youtu.be
(Also on our Hat Trick Honey FB page.)
***Why waste so much time, money, and pollution (sound, air, ground and water) FIGHTING nature and the outdoors every weekend off work when you could be HARMONIZING with nature???***
Jessie's Native Plant Talk: (free on YouTube Wild Ones of SEPA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8oPb37iXnI&t=1257s
Doug Tallamy: (Nature's Best Hope book tour talk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARdYLamTA-M&fbclid=IwAR1U3myggrelvrVgbCZHNoonrEmeD3XuNY83-JI9hn2hi9NYdJGdSMnUx7o
Some GREAT Documentaries:
Adam Ruins Lawns (free internet)
Inhabit (free internet)
Need to Grow (free internet)
The Pollinators (might be free now?)
Kiss the Ground (Netflix , possibly other sources too)
Check out the Hat Trick Honey Facebook page for video tours of all three bee yards !
We are all children of Mother Nature. Please respect & help your Mother !
Interested in Beekeeping? Year One = no bees. Shadow several beekeepers near you and learn learn learn. SO MUCH TO LEARN. This is best way to start. Remember, beekeeping is NOT conservation, it's agriculture, bee farming. Honeybee beekeeping does not help our environment, only native plants do that. In fact, honeybees may actually help spread non-native plants and worse, invasive non-native plants.
More honeybees and more beekeepers is the answer to zero problems we face.
Since I've learned these truths I've been slowly downsizing my beekeeping and focusing more on native plants.
Please do the same.
* PA Apiary License = PA Bee Law
https://www.paplants.pa.gov/SecurityLogin.aspx
It's currently $10 for two years but that is increasing. We need more inspectors, that fee doesn't even cover half of the program costs. I'll need to see your apiary license before bee pick up.
No limit on bee yard locations or number of colonies. Easy to add info on the online account via that web link.
This is because honeybees are livestock and to keep the worst bee disease in control if there is an outbreak. AFB, American Foul Brood is a spore forming bacteria that can live on old equipment for decades and decades. If there is an outbreak the bees need killed and hive burned. THEN all hives in a 5 mile radius get inspected by the local bee inspector for disease spread.
So new beekeepers "failing learning curve" just doesn't effect them, it can effect all the colonies around.
Apiary Apiarist Beekeeper Beekeeping Bee Keep Keeper Veil smoker honey comb raw apitherapy venom bee sting therapy BVT BST lyme lyme's disease arthritis MS multiple sclerosis auto immune hive hives body super supers healthy natural super food nutrition nutritious propolis tincture beginner beeginner mentor shadow apprentice honey first aid wound dressing nuc nuke nucs nucleus colony colonies treatment treating free organic chemicals mite miticides livestock agriculture bee farming package packages bad