QUALITY QUEENS • BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENT • PRACTICAL TRAINING — SERVING NIGERIA & ALL OF AFRICA

Our Bees

NUCS - Ibadan Apiary Pick Up

Sandalwood Apiaries provides strong, disease-inspected 5-frame nucs, mated queens, and established single-box colonies. Pick-up at our Ibadan breeding yard is between 6:30 am & 9:00 am or 5:30 pm & 7:00 pm on scheduled dates only.

Honey Bees - Ibadan

NUCS & QUEENS - Regional Dispatch

Coordinated morning dispatch in ventilated travel nuc boxes and queen cages across Southwest Nigeria and nationwide on scheduled dates.

Queens & Nucs Dispatch

Ibadan Apiary Pick Up & Live Bees

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Sandalwood Apiaries Traceable & Local Queen Bees
TRACEABLE & LOCALQUEEN
BEES►

Queen Bees

Our traceable queen bees are selectively bred at our Ibadan breeding yards from documented mother colonies chosen to thrive across Nigeria’s tropical wet and dry seasons. With honey production, calm temperament, and hygienic colony health at the top of our breeding program, we supply queens that build strong, manageable populations.

Every breeding line is evaluated across multiple nectar flows for compact brood solidarity, low tendency to abscond or swarm, rapid buildup ahead of major blossoms, and natural defense against Small Hive Beetles (SHB), wax moths, and Varroa mites.

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Queen Rearing & Colony Setup Supplies

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Sandalwood Apiaries 5-Frame Nucleus Colonies & Starter Bees
ESTABLISHED 5-FRAMENUCLEUS
COLONIES►

Nucleus Colonies & Starter Bees

What Is a 5-Frame Nucleus Colony (Nuc)?

A 5-frame nucleus colony is a fully functioning, established starter beehive on standard Langstroth frames, containing approximately 8,000–12,000 worker bees led by a mated, laying traceable queen.

Each Sandalwood Apiaries Nuc includes:

  • 3 Frames of Brood: Open larvae and capped worker brood with attendant nurse bees
  • 1 Mated & Marked Queen Bee: Actively laying on the comb from a documented mother colony
  • 2 Frames of Food Stores: Drawn beeswax comb with capped honey and bee bread (pollen)
  • Ventilated Transport Box: Ready for cool morning or evening transfer into your 10-frame Langstroth hive

Because a nuc already contains drawn comb, developing brood, and food reserves, colonies establish rapidly with minimal risk of absconding.

Welcome to Sandalwood Apiaries: The Trusted Place to Order Bees in Nigeria

At Sandalwood Apiaries, we specialize in breeding and supplying healthy, productive honeybees for beekeepers across Nigeria and Africa. Whether you are a beginner setting up your first two Langstroth hives or a commercial apiarist expanding a 100-colony honey farm, our live bees are carefully bred and inspected in Ibadan, Oyo State to ensure calm handling and dependable honey yields.

With scheduled apiary pick-up in Ibadan and coordinated regional dispatch in ventilated transit boxes, we make it straightforward to start, requeen, or scale your apiary.

Why Choose Sandalwood Apiaries Bees?

Sandalwood Apiaries was founded in 2020 to solve the biggest challenge facing African beekeepers: unreliable wild swarming stock with unknown genetics. Here is why beekeepers across Nigeria trust our breeding yards:

  • Documented Traceable Queen Genetics: Every queen is reared from mother colonies proven for high honey yields, calm behavior on the comb, and low absconding rates.
  • Inspected, Disease-Free Colonies: All nucleus colonies and queen cages are inspected for brood health and freedom from Small Hive Beetle or wax moth damage prior to release.
  • Complete Options for Every Beekeeper: From 5-frame established nucleus colonies to mated marked queens, virgin queens, and queen rearing kits.
  • Practical Apiary Support: Our specialists guide you on hive preparation, queen introduction, and seasonal feeding so your bees thrive from day one.

Explore Our Bees for Sale

We proudly supply live honeybees and breeding stock for Nigerian and West African apiaries, including 5-frame nucleus colonies and traceable queen bees.

5-Frame Honey Bee Nucs

Our 5-frame honey bee nucs are the fastest, most reliable way to start a new hive or boost a weak colony. Each nuc includes:

  • A mated, color-marked traceable queen bee
  • Thousands of healthy worker and nurse bees
  • Three frames of developing brood and two frames of honey and pollen stores on standard Langstroth frames

Traceable Mated & Virgin Queen Bees

Requeening an aggressive or failing hive with a Sandalwood Apiaries Queen Bee transforms colony temperament and productivity within weeks. Shipped in ventilated wooden cages with attendant workers and candy plugs for smooth colony acceptance.

Tips for a Thriving Hive

Here are four practical steps to help your new bees settle and thrive:

  1. Monitor Hive Health Regularly: Inspect brood frames every 10–14 days to verify compact egg-laying patterns and spot pests early.
  2. Provide Adequate Shade & Clean Water: Position hives on sturdy stands with partial afternoon shade and a reliable nearby water source during dry months.
  3. Keep Hive Space Matched to Population: Add honey supers only when 7–8 frames in the brood box are fully covered with bees to prevent Small Hive Beetle pressure.
  4. Expand Your Beekeeping Knowledge: Take advantage of our hands-on beekeeping workshops, books, and specialist guidance in Ibadan.

Join the Sandalwood Apiaries Beekeeping Community

When you order your queen bees and nucleus colonies from Sandalwood Apiaries, you join a growing network of passionate Nigerian and African beekeepers committed to modern, sustainable honey production. We are here to support you from selecting your first starter colony to harvesting pure golden honey.

Explore our online store to reserve your bees today, or contact our apiary team for expert advice and bulk cooperative scheduling.

Frequently Asked Questions

The queen bee is the sole reproductive mother of the colony, laying up to 1,500–2,000 eggs per day during peak season and releasing mandibular pheromones that regulate colony harmony, foraging drive, and calm behavior on the comb. A young, well-mated traceable queen from Sandalwood Apiaries ensures compact brood patterns and strong honey production.

Keep the wooden queen cage in a cool, shaded indoor room away from direct sunlight, ants, and insecticides. Place a tiny drop of clean water on the mesh screen (avoiding the candy plug) so the attendant worker bees can hydrate, and introduce her into a queenless colony within 24–48 hours.

Yes! Our 5-frame nucleus colonies are built on standard deep Langstroth frames. Simply transfer the 5 frames directly into the center of a 10-frame Langstroth brood box in the exact same order and orientation, and fill the remaining 5 spaces with frames of beeswax foundation.

You can subscribe to our mailing list in the website footer or check our Queens & Nucleus Colonies collection page. Because we breed queens in scheduled batches matched to Nigeria’s nectar flows, early reservation guarantees your preferred pick-up or dispatch date.

Absolutely. Sandalwood Apiaries is a complete one-stop beekeeping store. We manufacture precision Langstroth hive boxes, brood frames, beeswax foundation sheets, stainless-steel smokers, ventilated suits, and honey extractors.

A healthy colony shows steady worker traffic carrying bright yellow and orange pollen pellets at the hive entrance, calm behavior when frames are lifted, concentric arcs of pearly white larvae and solid capped brood, and capped honey stores along the upper corners of the frames.

First verify that the old queen has been removed for at least 6–24 hours and destroy any emergency queen cells. Remove the cork from the candy end of the Sandalwood Apiaries queen cage and wedge the cage between two central brood frames with the mesh facing open space so nurse bees can feed her and chew through the candy plug over 2–4 days.

We supply established 5-Frame Nucleus Colonies (Nucs), Mated & Color-Marked Traceable Queen Bees, and Virgin Queen Bees from our selected Ibadan breeding lines, as well as ventilated 5-frame wooden travel nuc boxes.

Always pick up and transport nucs during cool early morning (6:30 am – 9:00 am) or evening (5:30 pm – 7:00 pm) hours when all foragers are inside. Keep the ventilated travel box level, secure it so it cannot slide, and ensure steady airflow in your vehicle—never leave live bees in a parked, closed vehicle under the sun.

Our main nuc and mated queen production batches run from early rainy season through the primary honey flow months when drone populations and floral nectar are abundant. Contact our Ibadan team for off-season requeening availability or bulk farm bookings.

Testimonials

Excellent

Rated 5 out of 5

What Beekeepers Say About Our Live Bees & Queens

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Olumide Adeyinka

Ogbomoso, Oyo State
Rated 5 out of 5

Picked up four 5-frame nucs from the Ibadan breeding yard in April. Every single box was packed with capped brood and calm workers, and all four filled their honey supers before the dry season ended.

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Fatima Suleiman

Abuja, FCT
Rated 5 out of 5

We requeened three defensive wild colonies with Sandalwood Apiaries’ mated marked queens. Within five weeks the new brood emerged and our hives became a joy to inspect without heavy smoke.

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Kelechi Nwachukwu

Umuahia, Abia State
Rated 5 out of 5

The ventilated wooden travel nuc boxes kept our bees cool all the way during morning transit. Not a single comb collapsed and the queens started laying in their new 10-frame hives the very next day.

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Segun Opaleye

Abeokuta, Ogun State
Rated 5 out of 5

Having traceable mother colony records makes a huge difference. The brood pattern on our two Sandalwood queens is wall-to-wall, and we have had zero Small Hive Beetle issues.

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Zainab Lawal

Ilorin, Kwara State
Rated 5 out of 5

Ordered five virgin queens along with wooden introduction cages to expand our out-apiary. Four out of five mated within ten days and are now heading our strongest honey-producing colonies.

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Damilola Ojo

Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State
Rated 5 out of 5

As a first-time beekeeper, starting with an established 5-frame nuc from Sandalwood Apiaries saved me months of guesswork. Their team even showed me my marked queen on the frame before I left.

M

Musa Abdulkadir

Lokoja, Kogi State
Rated 5 out of 5

Reliable scheduling, healthy brood frames, and queens that don’t abscond when nectar slows down. Sandalwood Apiaries is hands-down the best bee breeder in Nigeria.

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Amina Bello

Minna, Niger State
Rated 5 out of 5

Our apiary cooperative ordered ten nucs for our youth empowerment program. Every single colony arrived healthy, vigorously foraging, and calm to manage on standard Langstroth frames.

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