Nucs from Betterbee

[kamerrill]

I was wondering if anyone had any praise or feedback on buying nucs from Betterbee?
Thanks a bunch,
Kurt

[Frohnho]

I have only good things to say about betterbee. There are great people allways willing to help you any way they can. I have 5 nucs ordered from them for this spring. I have only got 1 nuc from them in the past. The bees in thier nucs are carnies and they have wintered very well for me, very easy on stores. I use no chems or fogs or oils or meds at all and the hive from the betterbees nuc is still alive, at last check. This year they will fill your own nuc box so the price is cheaper than last year. If you do order from them order soon, last year I tried to add more nucs to my order in mid february and they were all sold out.

[MountainCamp]

I have gotten Nucs from BetterBee in the past and have ordered (6) Nucs for this spring. As mentioned they will fill your Nuc box, you can buy a box, or leave a deposit of $15.00 for BetterBee's box.
You should be very satisfied with their Nucs.

[kamerrill]

Thanks a bunch...!

[Pat]

I exchanged correspondence with a fellow Vermont beekeeper who purchased nucs from Betterbee last year that were infested with small hive beetle. As I recall, he was none too pleased with their response when he asked for an exchange either.
If I were to buy bees from them, I would find out up front what their policy is if there is a problem such as small hive beetle.

[Clayton]

SHB is here to stay in NY and VT. I was told by a commercial beekeeper that they are here last year. Maybe not widespread but it won't take long now. I know Bob Stevens pollinates in florida so its no suprise to me that his nucs have SHB's. You can try to delay it but the beetles will come....

[Pat]

I agree, they are here. Although I imagine it's quite a bummer to introduce them into your apiary via nucs you paid good money for

[MountainCamp]

Has anyone contacted BetterBee and asked them to comment?

There is a conversation taking place concerning someone's livelyhood based on what someone told someone who told someone.

I do not have first hand knowledge as to what the facts are, but I have sent an e-mail asking about this to BetterBee.

[BjornBee]

I wrote a big piece on the importance of consumer to consumer exchange of information, and the exchange of information on forums such as this. How no bee producer has a 100% perfect track record, with no unhappy consumers. Then I erased it all in favor of a deep question.......I wonder what Betterbee is going to say?

[kamerrill]

I appreciate the feedback from everyone. I agree that no track record is perfect and can't ever be. But I certainly feel that businesses should strive for a high level of customer service and a clean track record.

It is also important to be an informed consumer and sharing this type of information is important. That's how consumers find out if something is good or not. Based on the above feedback, I can form some educated questions that I can ask Betterbee before I buy. I have had OUTSANDING customer service from them in the past as well as good products. But as we know, just because McDonalds can make a good hamburger doesnÂ’t mean they can make good pizza. That's the information that I would like to know before I buy their bees - -a product that I have not purchased from them in the past.

>>Has anyone contacted BetterBee and asked them to comment? <<
Not my place to ask them to comment publicly. I will ask them to respond to me directly as a consumer of their products if I am concerned about information that I have heard.

>>There is a conversation taking place concerning someone's livelihood based on what someone told someone who told someone.<<
Not really, but I understand what you are trying to communicate. More accurately we are exchanging information about a product that they sell. Whether or not this information somehow ultimately impacts their livelihood is really not the topic of conversation. But to the point, consumer-to-consumer, we are exchanging important pro/con information and there is nothing wrong about that and certainly nothing to feel guilty or bad about.

[jfischer]

I doubt that Bob Stevens will reply to
this forum soon. Rumor has it that his
wife is seriously ill.

As for SHB in nucs, I agree that this
is a serious issue, but the only answer
is to not buy packages or nucs from
anyone who MIGHT be infested with SHB,
or stick to buying queens only, pulling
the queen cages from the battery boxes,
and killing all the shipped attendent
bees, just to be sure to kill any SHB
that might be in the box. Then you
must (quickly) inspect the queens and
get them all banked in colonies that
you have made ready, and later, introduce
them to splits.

Regardless, SHB in New York is nothing but
the result of migratory beekeepers externalizing their costs on everyone else.
This is a common problem. Many people and
firms can "externalize" their costs, while
"internalizing" their profits. I'm, not
sure what to say to a migratory beekeeper
about this, but I am glad that they don't
even slow down as they move down I-95 and
I-81 through Virginia as they "migrate".

jim

[Scot Mc Pherson]

I would think one should be able to spot shb in a queen cage.

[AstroBee]

I agree, you should easily be able to see shb in a queen cage and therefore killing all attendants is probably extreme, but I guess being ultra cautious doesn't hurt.

Jfischer,

Its not just migratory beekeepers spreading the love. Here in the southeastern part of the state we are dirty with shb and I'm pretty darn sure that it wasn't the result of migratory beekeepers coming into the area - no reason for them to come here! Most likely source of our infestation was package bees. You're fortunate that Farmageddon is shb free, but chances are very good that they are moving your direction. Keep a watchful eye for those fast moving little black beetles!

[joens]

Just yesterday I got a brochure from one of the well known package bee suppliers and in it there was a paragraph saying that small hive beetles were in the area and there was no way to guarantee that the packages would not include SHB they were hopefull they could keep them out of queen shipments but were not sure about packages.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

> I got a brochure from one of the well known package bee suppliers...

OK, who? It hurts no one to tell the truth, especially when they print it out and distrubute it themselves.