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queen and package prices

17K views 78 replies 24 participants last post by  wjw777 
#1 ·
Has anyone checked out the prices for 2003 queens and packages. They raised them up about as much as honey has gone up. This just makes me mad as can be. Do not get me wrong I am all for making a fair dollar but this is out of control. I raised more queens last year then I could use it is not that hard. Has demand gone that high? This is going to discourage beggining hobby beekeepers from trying this wonderfull hobby.
 
#2 ·
I did some homework today after I got a flier from B Weaver 936.825.7312. Holie Molie! $60 plus shipping and insurance ($20)!!! For #3 packages up to nine, then it drops all the way down to $54 up to 49... Queens are $17, $18.50 clipped and marked plus shipping.
Midwest 740.892.3200 will be $50 plus $8 priority mail.
Koehnen 530.891.5216 hasn't decided on prices yet but expect to go up a couple of dollars from last years price of $44 plus shipping.
McCary 601.648.2747, (he's a hoot! and a real nice guy) had the Cardovans that I was looking for at $45 plus shipping, marked at no cost, and queens at $12 plus shipping. His stock comes from Glenn apiaries in Ca. they sell their breeder queens for $75 plus shipping.
Thats's all I done so far, going to check out Heitkam's tomorrow 530.865.9562 for New World Carmoilans. I might also try Strachan.
Bill
 
#4 ·
Regarding the prices of packages. Just received the latest copy of American Bee Journal and browsed the ads. Seem to be pretty close to last years prices. Plan on calling my local supplier next week and see what prices he is quoting.
 
#7 ·
Anyone here know the best place to get cordovan queens. My wife would kill me if I paid $75.00 for a queen. I bought a package of bees from CF Koehnen and sons. They were gorgouse. I am going to order from them again, thought maybe some you may have another supplier.

Don't get me wrong CF Koehnen are great people to do business with, its just I would like to have a backup plan.

The cordovans I got from CF Koehnen were the most gentle bees I have ever seen. They made beekeeping seem effortless. The colony is still alive; however I have went through a supersedure and all the bees have went to regular Italian. Plan on requeening with cordovan to get back where I started.

Thanks
Thesurveyor
 
#12 ·
Does KS have a restriction from California. I know some states will not allow shipment from California due to africanized honey bees in Califoria.

CF Koehnen is approved to sell bees to North Carolina.

Someone on the board may be able shed some light on the KS subject.

Thesurveyor

[This message has been edited by thesurveyor (edited January 15, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by thesurveyor (edited January 15, 2003).]
 
#18 ·
Guys what’s wrong with all of you???

I go thru the whole page and all of you talking about package queens and bees.
Have none of you learned to breed your own bee and queens?
I can’t believe it if I read all the articles here.

How long are you keeping bees? Are you all beginners with no help from an experience beekeeper?

We have all year a program in our club and everyone gets eggs from beekeepers with good bee material for free. We have 3 to 5 frame breeding hives without a queens and take this with us to the other beekeeper for the eggs. We can breed up to 40 queens in those hives depend on the amount of bees. We teach the beginners and they can have queens from us for free also.

After you collect the honey, you can split a hive in 3, the next year 3 in 9 and so on. Why you all looking for bees from special breeders? Thos guys a lucky in your country here they would starve to death.

I think some of you needs every month instructions what to do or better what you shouldn’t do with your bees. Like we give the beginners in the club here.
A beekeeper should never ever ask where he could get bees from, only if he had an accident like flood we had last year, fire, robbery or AFB. Or he is a beginner!!
I had last year 14 new queens left and they was free for the beginners in the club.
 
#19 ·
The package bee industry here in the USA is quite large.

Queens are bought by most commercial and hobbiest beekeepers because raising really good queens is a time consuming and complex undertaking. Also there is the pure breeds that people want to try.

Some people in the far north actually kill all their bees every fall and buy new package bees every spring. (I would never do this myself)

Some people are just getting into beekeeping and don't know anyone who would give them bees.

Some people are expanding their bee business and want to do so quickly.

Some people have lost all or most of their hives to mites or other disease and want to replentish their hives.

I doubt that anyone does this because they don't know how to make splits.

Myself, I was on the verge of cutting back to one hive or so and gave away almost all of my bees to friends when I found this board and got excited about all the new experiments on mite control. Small cell, being the most exciting and FGMO fog being another exciting front. I decided that I could sell small bees and maybe make a reasonable amount of money at it. And a friend of mine agreed to take on alot of the hard labor. I didn't think there was enough money in just honey to be worth the back breaking work for me.

So now I want to get about 20 hives to experiment with raising queens, doing small cell, FGMO, and some of the top bar hives I've been wanting to try.

To do this from the one strong hive I have and the one weak one I have would take several years, even if I talk my friends into letting me take splits off of some of the hives I gave away. And I have a lot of experiments I want to start now.

That's why I'm buying bees this year.
 
#20 ·
I agree Axtmann with what you say Ive been breeding my own queens for about 5 yrs now and it really bothers me when other beekeepers bring packages from southern bees into my beekeeping area.My queens often end up mating with their drones and lose the ability to survive the winter.And it always amazes me that these same people complain about mites killing their hives when its really just poorly bred southern queens.
 
#21 ·
I agree Axtmann with what you say Ive been breeding my own queens for about 5 yrs now and it really bothers me when other beekeepers bring packages from southern bees into my beekeeping area.My queens often end up mating with their drones and lose the ability to survive the winter.And it always amazes me that these same people complain about mites killing their hives when its really just poorly bred southern queens.
 
#22 ·
Its just a matter of economics,not any lack of ability.This is a big country with many different climatic areas.So,I can buy queens from a friend farther south where it is full blown spring,while where I live high in the mountains it is still snowing.I can make splits and give them a mated queen way before I can raise them here.These early splits will average 60 to 100 lbs taken off in August.In May I can raise queens to requeen the others that need it..So we take advantage of the climate differences.If it didnt pay,I wouldnt do it.Also,just because its from a warmer area,dont assume the stock is inferior. Quite a few sellers use breeder queens from the North .You can get what you want ,you just have to ask(and pay)! Another reason is the bee outfits are larger here and dont always have time to raise queens.Between extracting and pollinating some outfits are already working 8 days a week!
---Mike
 
#24 ·
I don't think package bees are the biggest threat in regards to Small Hive Beetles and Varroa resistent mites. It's the migratory beekeepers who haul their hives from Arizona to Montana or Wyoming to California and back. I'm not critisizing them for making a living, but they are much more likely to have some hidden infestation that no one notices than a bare package that has just been gone through, and all of mine are stamped that they are free from infestation, which is more than the migratory hives get sometimes.
 
#25 ·
Yes ,moving truckloads of bees around will spread problems.But that is how agricultural crops get produced in the real world.I just got back from the almond orchards in N.cal.where probably around a million hives from many states are starting to be moved into the orchards.Almonds are Californias biggest export crop.Nothing is going to stop something that big with so much at stake.Like it or not thats how it is.Everything comes here and we just have to deal with it.Money talks,BS walks, as they say.
---Mike
 
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