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My experience with Chuck Norton

54K views 56 replies 30 participants last post by  bnm1000 
#1 ·
Hi All,

It is with humbling despair that I write this email to forewarn anyone all to avoid Chuck Norton (Norton Honey Farm) at all cost. Long story short, I am a second year beekeeper who saved up enough money to buy some queens to start my own nucs. I read my American Bee Journal and Bee Culture and noticed an add (Norton) for Russian Queens. So I searched the Internet and found his website which seemed quite nice. I read all his information and decided to spend my savings and purchase 10 of his TIER-2 queens at $35 each plus $11 S&H. This was in MAY.

He told me to call in June set delivery. So I called and was told to call early July for delivery. So I called and was told to call in late July for delivery. So I called and was told to call in early August. So I called and he said to make up my nucs he was shipping on that Wednesday. Well, Thursday came and no queens. As did Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the following Monday. So I called and asked if he had and shipping the queens and he said "Well, No, I don't really have any queens to ship." This after telling to go ahead and make up my 10 nucs.

So, I lost 10 nucs plus time and material to make them up.
I have also lost my savings of $361 dollars to further my beekeeping career.
Chuck will not return any call or email of mine.
I contacted the president of the Russian Queen association (Charles Harper) and was told there is nothing they can do as they more of a CLUB than a regulated organization.

Hopefully this email will keep anyone else from being ripped off by Chuck Norton. As for me, I'm out my $361 savings and have a bad taste from the Beekeeping hobby. Hopefully I can save more money and expand my new found hobby next year.

Caveat emptor

Chris Childress :(
 
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#32 ·
Chuck Norton's queens

I too am awaiting Russian queens from Chuck Norton. I ordered 5 last summer which were never delivered with the same reasons given to others in this thread. I was then told that I would get the queens this spring. It is now May 19 and still no queens. The heavy spring flows are coming to a close so any queens I receive now will simply create new hives with no honey potential this year. Very disappointing service. He has not responded to my last few emails and his phones won't take messages.

I am down to one hive to make splits off of and am desperate for queens to build up my apiary. Guess I should have looked on this list before I tried a new queen breeder.
 
#33 ·
Hey Jess...

Hi Jess,
When I spoke with Chuck last fall face to face he told me he still owed some people some queens and he was going to make good on his word. I had an overwhelming feeling he wouldn't and you have proved this to be true. Jess, I had two very nice Russian breeders reach out to me after my ordeal was brought to light here on the forums. They are Velbert Williams and Kenny Reed. Both are members of the Russian Association. I actually spoke with Velbert first and worked out a deal to purchase 20 queens from him this Spring.
Let me tell you, I could not be more happy with Velbert's services. Not only did he send me 20 queens, he spent time to talk with me on the phone discussing some of the finer points of queens and what-not. He is a very down to earth guy and not long after talking with him could sense his compassion of beekeeping and fellow beekeeper. I can't say enough good things about Velbert. I recommend you have your own experience!
Here is the link to his website and contact information:
http://www.vlwbee.santu.com/

Oh yea, out of the 20 queens I introduced, all 20 were accepted!
Better yet, withing 48 hours of introduction I had 2 full frames laid solid with eggs!

Thanks Velbert. :applause:
 
#34 ·
Chuck Norton's queens

Thanks for the update Chris. I will check my last remaining hive tomorrow to assess how many potential splits there are and order queens then. I checked out the Velbert Williams web site and it looks professional. I doubt that Chuck Norton had/has any dishonest intentions. My gut feeling was exactly what you thought, he dug himself a hole and has not been able to climb out and has been too embarassed to deal with all of the disappointed clients. Very unfortunate for all concerned. I am just going to write off the money as a loss. My greatest peeve is the loss of time waiting for his queens. Spring around here has a huge honey flow and that is being missed. If Chuck had just been more realistic about his abilities I would have swallowed the loss and ordered queens for a normal April delivery. Although in all honesty I don't think my survivor hive was strong enough to split much in April.
Thanks again.
 
#35 ·
trouble @ Norton

Iam very sorry you had a bad experence with Mr. Norton. I have tried for weeks to get in touch with him. I have left e-mails and the phone # listed just rings, I wanted to purchse some teir 2 queens as well. The site lists aug 14 as a new date for these queens. THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE. Iam sure you saved me alot of time and trouble. I hope he will straighten everything out. (we have had unusually wet yr in NC)
 
#36 · (Edited by Moderator)
Please reread this thread!

Hi,

As the reply title states you should go back and reread this thread from beginning to end. There have been multiple people ripped off by Chuck and all have the same story. STAY AWAY!

You mention his website lists August 14th for the new date for queens. If you scroll on down to the bottom of the page you will see his site has not been updated since June 28th, 2008.

Chuck has no intention of fulfilling paid orders from last year. He has pulled his ad's from both ABJ and BC. If you paid for queens last year and received none, sorry but you have taken like me. If you paid for queens this year, well..... stupid is as stupid does! :no:

One thing I want to bring up is Chuck has been removed from the Russian Bee Breeders website: http://www.russianbreeder.org/members.htm

but on his website he still claims to be an active CERTIFIED CHARTER member: http://www.mybeebusiness.com/

I for one am asking members of the Russian Bee Breeders move to remove his false claims from his website. This is how people are fooled by him. He states his queens come from fellow parter Charlie Harper who is president of the RBB association. If anything, I would assume Charlie, along with other RBB's, would not want their name associated with the hack.

Guys?
 
#37 ·
Update

On May 20 I emailed Chuck again asking about the possibility of a shipment of my 5 queens this spring. I did not hear back so on May 21 I emailed Chuck to cancel my order as I had ordered 5 queens from Velbert Williams. On May 22 Chuck finally responded to my email and said that he would ship my 5 queens on May 26. Velbert Williams was extremely gracious and promptly refunded my money. You can probably guess where this is heading. Today is June 5 and I still have not received my queens from Mr. Norton. It is really too late to do splits here so I am totally out of luck (screwed actually) and Mr. Williams is out of stock anyway. Once again Mr. Norton is AWOL since he emailed me with a shipping date.

I am extremely frustrated and angry about this whole situation. Never in over 20 years of hobby beekeeping has anything even close to this happened. In frustration I contacted the North Carolina Attorney General and filed a complaint against Mr. Norton. Don't know that it will accomplish anything but I feel it needed to be done.
Jess
 
#38 · (Edited by Moderator)
Yet another victim......

Hi Jess,
Sorry about your luck. Rereading the thread I think it was on May 20 I told you he had no plans of fulfilling orders...... YADA,YADA...

I'm surprised this thief is still taking people's money and offering queens for sale in 2009 when he didn't fill his 2008 orders. This guy is a crook who takes peoples money and then promises them queens. Then when questioned gives excuses like it's too rainy or it's too hot or it's too windy for mating flights.

Not to rub salt in your wound but you should have stuck with Velbert. He is a first class guy and his queens are the best I have ever used. Hands down!

I hope your contact with the NC Attorney General pans out but at my estimate your out $175 plus S&H. Myself, I was cheated out of $350 plus S&H. These amounts are probably small stuff to the NC AG. I would also report him to the BBB since you are located in the same state as he.

To continue this thread, I would like to know what the RBB Association is doing about Chuck Norton. His website is fraudulent in saying he is an active Charter Member of the RBB. This in my opinion could reflect bad on the RBB having such a member advertising his product using the RBB name. This could also have legal action deflected from Chuck to the RBB if they don't distance themselves from him and call for the RBB to be removed immediately from his website.

Any thoughts? How about it RBB members?
 
#39 ·
You need to contact the RBB directly yourself Belt. They don't need to be called into this thread to defend themselves against someone else's actions.

Furthermore, this is a consumer report forum. It's not intended to be a perpetual rant forum. We understand the real anger and frustration caused by these things but the "consumers" are better served by having the pertinent information posted by those that have been affected.

The people reading the complaints can and will make their decisions based on that information.
 
#40 ·
Hi Bizzy,

I'm not calling the RBB into this thread to defend themselves. My intent is to possibly motivate them to get Chuck to remove his false claims from his website which continues to take advantage of unsuspecting people.

I have spoke with members of the RBB and they seem very nice and trustworthy. I even spoke with Carlie Harper last summer about this situation with Chuck. He told me I was not the first person having reported the same problem with Chuck. He went on to say the there was nothing written in the RBB bylaws to address this type of situation. He said that Chuck's info would be removed from the RBB website this way the RBB wouldn't be directing people to Chuck. I thanked Charlie and told him I was sorry he had a bad apple in the organization.

Also, I don't how one could call this thread a PERPETUAL RANT. Especially when another person comes out yesterday (Jess) and states he has not received his queens either. There is no anger on my end but It does frustrate me the unsuspecting people are still ripped off.
 
#41 ·
FYI,

Chuck came through for me today. I received the four queens that I had ordered early spring 2008. He sent me an email yesterday stating that he had upgraded my order to tier II queens. They were and they arrived in excellent condition (I wonder what it is that I get queens in better shape from the east coast than out of California?). I was worried like alot of others and thought I would never see my queens.

I hope Chuck is able to survive this ordeal and get his queen business back on stable ground again. I really enjoyed my phone conversations with him. I think he really probably is a sincere person who had a bad streak of luck with his bees that just about put him out of the bee business. I would be willing to try him again if he is willing to accept payment after I receive the queens. That sound fair. Trust:)

Spruce Bee
 
#42 ·
Update 2

I too received my 5 queens from Chuck Norton last week, also updated to Tier 2. So far so good with 4 readily accepted in splits and the fifth needing a push in cage in the original hive. Hopefully she will be accepted as well. Maybe Mr. Norton is turning a corner and getting his business back into order. The shipment was very well prepared and the queens all looked very healthy.
 
#48 ·
Re: Big Problems with Chuck Norton

Last I heard was that he was no longer selling Russians.
I have not seen or heard from him in approx. 1 year. We were in the same Rockingham County Beekeepers Assoc. in NC. Haven't heard or seen him in a while.
http://mybeebusiness.com/

Not an evaluation of service - just for the sake of information.

Hopefully, he has been able to 'right the ship' so to speak.
 
#46 ·
Re: Big Problems with Chuck Norton

Wow . . . I'm glad I found this thread on Chuck Norton. I had a very bad experience with a David Winters, owner of Long Creek Apiaries, so I found Norton's website and was going to try his queens . . . but not anymore! (I'll look for a local source now.) Thanks for posting this thread.
 
#49 ·
On his website:

"I am an initial member of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association, Inc. and my entire breeding operation is currently certified and is set up per the established protocol of the RHBA."

I wonder what that means? I heard that he was no longer a member. I think this is an important point to know where the truth is. Is he saying "I am an initial member" but not telling you he no longer is?
 
#57 ·
Re: Anyone had experience with Norton's Honey Farm

Update on Nucs from Chuck Norton.

I met Chuck today and picked up two nucs. I was very impressed. Mr. Norton spent two hours with me. We went through each nuc, frame by frame. The nucs I picked up had an established queen, excellent brood patterns, and were absolutely heavy with bees and brood in all stages. Honestly, the nucs were better than what I expected. I expected 3 frames of brood and a frame or two of honey and pollen. What I received was 5 frames of brood with some of the frames having bands of pollen/honey.

I realize that a few people had some bad experiences a number of years ago. I can't speak for these people, but I felt like I received a lot for the cost. Sometimes Chuck is difficult to get hold of, but that seems to be typical with people working in the field. Originally, I was expecting the Nucs in late April or early May, but we had a very cold Spring so everything is delayed.

I would definitely purchase nucleus hives from Chuck in the future. Quality was great and the price was great too.
 
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