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Russell Apiaries

231K views 504 replies 148 participants last post by  jim lyon 
#1 ·
Anyone have recent contact with Russell Apiaries? Placed an on-line order for queens with them on Jan 20. Payment went through but I have never received an order confirmation from them and all attempt to contact them have failed.
 
#269 ·
With the season getting so shot I gave up on the Moonbeams I had ordered and sent a message to Rob telling him I would take Danish in their place. Two days later I had an email from Victoria that 5 Danish were shipped and a SKC would be shipped later if I still wanted it.

Queens arrived the next day. Danged UPS driver would have left them on the porch in the hot sun if the wife hadn't spotted him walking away! Package lable states very clearly do not leave in the sun!
 
#273 ·
Does proactive mean not expecting UPS employees to do the job they are paid for? I will never forget the first time i heard that word. We were supposed to be Proactive in eliminating Buzz Words from our official correspondence! Of course that was a guvmint job during the Clinton Administration.
 
#281 · (Edited)
Does proactive mean not expecting UPS employees to do the job they are paid for? I will never forget the first time i heard that word. We were supposed to be Proactive in eliminating Buzz Words from our official correspondence! Of course that was a guvmint job during the Clinton Administration.
Ever heard the saying "Trust, but verify."?

I'm just telling you what I do when I am expecting queens in the Mail or via UPS. When I invest thousands of dollars into something as fragile and important I do what I can to ensure successful delivery.

But, if you want to depend on others doing their job, well, what can I say?

Okay, a number of you don't like the word "proactive". What word would you like to be used to describe doing what one can to ensure successful delivery of queens?
 
#274 ·
Interesting Preciousbeesfarm, I got my queens June 1 and out of the 6, 3 Sunkist, 3 Moonbeams, only got 1 drone layer out of the group. Obviously it wasn't a very good batch or they were pulled and held over the Memorial day weekend, or the little guys, us, got the duds. Only RA knows about that. But pretty interesting that a couple of us indeed didn't get quite the quality that we were looking for. At least you got some replacements, I got the cold shoulder as others have.
 
#276 ·
I’m not too fond of the word proactive either. I worked for a fellow who, whenever things didn’t go exactly right would tell everyone that they needed to be more proactive. I remember that we had a load of equipment shipped, the shipping company lost it for a week and when it finally arrived much of the stuff was damaged. The old fool still insisted that we could have headed it off if we’d been more proactive. That was over a decade ago….and the word still pi…..annoys me.
 
#277 ·
Those with long term relationships with RA tend to be supporters, I did not worry about intent to make right, I did worry about ability to make it right.

When RA is able to make something right, I take it as a positive sign. I am glad to read those posts.
Enough has been said to warn anybody of the troubles. A good post should not be a call to go negative.
 
#279 ·
Brandy,

You're confirming what I thought. I also got bees that arrived on June 1. They were supposed to arrive (guaranteed by USPS in fact) on the 31st, but they sat an extra day in the Jackson MI USPS facility according to their tracker. That shipment was pretty much all rejected, except 1 non layer. There was another person or two who got bees early june (I presume also June 1) with that problem. I suspect that whole batch was damaged from sitting in heat. Enough to harm the queens without killing them, as prior and following RA queens didn't have that problem. Also you might try and contact them further. They made good on replacing my queens at their cost.
 
#280 ·
Nichols 747,
Rob Hughs there is keeping a list of orders moved to next year. When the site is up, it will be again, if you take his name on a posting it will bring up the RA e-mail link. Also through contact us above I believe.
 
#282 ·
It's important to develop a relationship with your local PO if you get queens in the mail. I always go into the PO a couple of days before and tell them I'm expecting bees. I also wrote a letter to the postmaster about how helpful and good his employees were [well deserved]. I get a call about 6 am when the bees hit the PO and they take great care of them. I think proactive is the correct word for it.
 
#285 ·
Yer werkin' 2 hard Ed. I didn't read the story at all after I read "cover your butt". If it isn't being proactive, I don't know what it is. All I know is, if Ido everything I can to make things work and queens arrive dead, then I know I have a claim.

Russell sent me some queens last year and they arrived just fine.

I think we get the point. Some folks haven't gotten satisfactory service. Too bad those who have are not as vocal. But that isn't how people work. The satisfied never speak as loudly or as often as the dissatisfied. I don't know the answers to those who have not gotten what they ordered. Find a more dependable source, I guess.
 
#288 ·
The subproducers will be selling to the local hobbist market. That way there will be better customer service and still have the selection and most will be acclimated to those areas. All lines sold by the subproducers will come for RA breeders. Some will simply be open mated and a few will be mated in isolated areas with them flooded with drones. Robert has been proactive on getting the situation straightened out. A few of us are already shipping and trying to help catch up the backlog. But most are still ramping up for next year.
 
#289 ·
I do hope this works out, Beetrucker. Russell's has apparently had a good reputation in years past and I hope that they can correct the problems that appeared once they ventured into the hobbiest area and retain that good reputation. From what I understand (as a newbee) the honey bee gene pool has gotten smaller as time has progressed. There are many areas where only hobbyists reside and these areas can use all the varied genes possible, excluding AHB of course.

Ed
 
#296 ·
The man does bees well, he obviously did commercial sales well. He shares knowledge freely and well. He did not do retail sales and communications well. No, I did not get my order.

The horse is dead, beating on it more will not make it run any faster.

RA had a choice, slam the door on the little guy or completely change his business plan again. At the risk of a royal roasting, I support RA's attempt to keep his strains available.

Beetrucker74, keep your head low.
 
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