the three packages i ordered at Betterbee now cant be picked up until June 4th.
My question is, in this upstate NY area, how late is tooo late to install packages and have a healthy colonies going into the winter. I feel as if im too late to begin this. Local opinions would be great.. if it helps to know, my bees will be set out in a rural farm and wooded area.
I'm in Portland Or. , our winters aren't as cold as yours but I believe much wetter. I would say your chances are 50/50 at best. If the bees get delayed anymore I would cancel till next time even if they charge a small amnt. for canceling, it would be cheaper than babying hives all winter. If you do get them then feed, feed ,feed.....
This is typical of betterbee-yhey pushed an order I had with them 3 times and I finally cancelled the order and had to pay the cancellation charge-found a supplier with a nuc and have never gone back.
Suppliers like Betterbee don't shake the packages of bees you get. They come from Wilbanks in Georgia, and like any other outfit are at the mercy of the weather. I always figure packages will come 2 weeks after the original date. If they are on time or only one week late, it's like a bonus.
I received mine the first week of June last year. They took off slow but gained momentum as the summer progressed. They did not like plastic foundation, switched to all wax foundation then they went gang busters. Fed them from the first day thru October. Didn't get any honey (which i didn't expect) but they wintered very very well and were very strong this spring, although I thought the worst during the winter. I will be splitting very shortly, the queen was superceded late summer but everything went well as I have stated. I think the secret was continued feeding.
Regards
Pete
thanks for the replies (so far). feeding wont be a problem even if i have to.
Pete, i am starting on plastic foundation as well. When you say you switched to wax did you do that for ALL of your supers or just the ones needed for brood ie: deep hive?
All my frames in both brood boxes are wax foundation. They just would not draw out the plastic foundation for some reason beyond me. As soon as I switched they went crazy.
When I used to order packages from betterbee (I do not anymore) I woould always make sure I was in the first shipment date because they always get pushed back. So even if they bump you when you are the first week you are still getting them the last week of April.
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