Sourcing local bees...

[flylooper]

Hello Willamette Valley beeks!

I'm about to start my first ever hive for 2015. As I surf all over the internet, one of the recommendations a lot of folks offer is to locally source bees. The one or two suppliers of nucs (you know who they are) evidently buy their bees from California. (If I'm wrong, please let me know.) I'd like to see if I could get some Italians from a beekeeper in the Willamette Valley.

Is there someone who can supply me next spring? 

Bob in Jefferson, OR

[apis]

Bob, do you have a flexible enough schedule that you could respond to a swarm call? Of course you get what you get with a swarm, but there is merit in the idea of working with local feral stock... And it's a bonus to get "free bees", though if you figure your time and gas it's certainly not free.