please tell me where you got them from . i am going to get a few more nucs and dont want the same problem

 

got mine from C&H Apiaries in S Ga. Minn Hybrids like you 11x....bought them off ebay and woudl HIGHLY recommend....

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy bees from C&H Apiaries of Ocilla, Georgia! Don't make that mistake! Not only did he sell me a dead package of bees, dead queen too, but now he refuses to send news ones after promising he would, and he refuses to answer phone calls and emails. I'm not the only one, his Ebay rating has fallen from all the negative comments he got just this past week alone; dead bees, dead queen, taking the money and not shipping the product, etc. BAD BUSINESS! :no:

Blossom, there are lots of reputable apiaries in North Carolina. You and I are about an hour apart. Contact me and I'll tell you who I've been dealing with in the Chapel Hill area.

 

You might want to wait to judge the color of bees. they could come from different race if bees than your queen. The queen could have cross bread with drones of lighter color to.

 

Blossom,
I don't think Ohio is high on the list for number of package bee producers, at least not early in the year.

You live in an area with quite a bit of bee activity. I see towns in that area pop up on this forum frequently. Brushy Mountain Bee Farm is maybe a couple of hours from you. There is a package bee producer in Goldsboro. I'll bet a search would turn up just what you are looking for.

Next year try to find a source you can drive to. You can't do better than local bees. Even if they are not local, you might avoid the trauma (for the bees) of a second shipping leg. What does it matter what flavor of bees they are if they are dead when you get them?

 

I don't understand what you are saying. If companies offer a specific breed than the queens should be bred to that specific breed. Non the less I would reccomend anyone think twice before buying from anyone in Spencer Ohio. I'm not happy how they just wrote me off and I will be sounding off. They took a lot of money off me and I didn't get everything I paid for.

Also, my interest in bees over the past year does not make me an expert on buying bees. My thought was the further north they came from the less chance of any African bees mixed. I know I wouldn't go any where south of me. From what I had read I knew I wanted a gentle bee and the Carniolan fit that for me.

 

When you buy a package of bees, the queen is the ONLY bee that is certain to be of that breed.

Package suppliers often shake bulk bees from several hives (of any breed) and then add a queen of the ordered variety. As the package bees die off, the new bees this queen produces will be the ordered variety.

 

Unless you pay like $100 for an II queen, thats what you'll get.
I've heard the Russian Bee Breeders Asc. bees are supposed to be more purely bred.

 

Like others have said here I recommend buying bees close to you. In your case I would buy nucs that are queenless which will place the cost about 20 bucks less for the nucs then order exactly what kind of queen you would like from a reputable breeder. I recommend CF Koehnen and sons. They have excellent queens and I believe they also sell packages.

If they didn't give you what you asked and paid for you are right to try and get some of your money back. Good luck with that and your bees.

 

We bought 4 Nucs in state this Spring that are NW Carniolan. The queens were so dark the beek that sold them to us called them "Oprah's Sisters"> They are very gentle. Who knows about honey production yet as it has rained every other day for 2 months now.
It was a 4 hour drive each way to get our nucs but it was worth it. They only spent 4 hours and 15 minutes in the box that way.

 

I bought bees from a bee producer here in Maine who is 30 minutes from my house - I thought the bees were Maine bees. Turns out he simply drives to Georgia, buys bees there and then re-packages into nucs. So even if you buy locally, you may not get local bees. I have learned it is rare, in fact, for bee suppliers to raise enough bees to make splits and sell local bees. We are starting here, in our area, to focus more on making our own nucs so we can indeed have bees that are better able to withstand the Maine winters. My nucs from the south via the Maine producer had small hive beetles, too. It was a disappointment to learn this! We have Carniolians too and the field bees are every color from dark to light. I heard even marked queens may end up not marked because the bees may clean off the mark.

 

as my under standing goes ,, in a package of bees they put Italian bees in and then add the queen race ordered ,,, they do this because the Italian bee excepts any queen race easier then any other ... like Russian bees are one of the hardest to have another race queen excepted ... like I said "" my understanding ""
now M Bush will come in and shoot my understanding all full of holes ......

 

the kid writes:
as my under standing goes ,, in a package of bees they put Italian bees in and then add the queen race ordered ,,, they do this because the Italian bee excepts any queen race easier then any other .

tecumseh:
somewhat correct but by and large there seems to be a lot of assumption parading about on this thread trying to look like accurate information.

if you order a package of X variety of bees the queen in the introduction cage is the only individual that somewhat complies with this description. the somewhat meaning that since she is open mated only half of her genetic material is determined. +30 days after installation then and only then would you be able to determine if the queens offspring fully matched the description on the package.

the workers in the package may come from any kind of booming hive (shaken off of brood frames) quite typically from some area where the bees start brood up early (good luck on your notion to not acquire package bees from anywhere in the southern us of a pilgrim). these 'bulk bees' quite typically can be italians since they brooding up early and are by and large the preferred choice of a lot of migratory beekeepers.

the dead bees in the package more than likely are a product of shipping this fragile item all the way across the country. it seems to me the buyer got exactly what she ordered. this was not what the buyer's assumptions made her think it would be, but this is not the fault of the person(s) providing the package.

 

I found out they were shipped from Northern Cal. to Ohio put their name stickers on and shipped out again.

I think most Northern sellers do this when they offer packages.
They buy a large amount of packages at a discount, then re-sell them.
Next time you might check out the southern bee sellers and save yourself the middleman.

 

This is my first year with honeybees. After looking in different sites I found someone in Ohio who sold bees. I wanted Carniolan and with repeated emails and questions I ordered two 3 # packages. I live in North Carolina and I wanted a northern bee. It wasn't until close to shipping did I find out these bees would be coming from somewhere in Northern Calif. I didn't see anywhere on their site that their bees wouldn't be from Ohio.

Unfortunately, this is more of a "rookie mistake" than the fault of the seller. As others have said, nearly all package bees originate in warmer climates. It seems you made an assumption they were from Ohio, and being new, didn't think to ask about it.

That extended trip was too long.

Which is why so many of us always recommend buying bees locally.

Queens were not marked as requested.

An oversight, but not a major issue, in my opinion.

These bees are yellow not dark like I expected as Carniolans.

As others have said, with packages, only the queen is will be the selected race.

I phoned ... Emails do not get answered... I guess the deal is done and no more responses are given.

Sorry that their customer service may be lacking.

Do other beekeepers get this kind of stuff happen to them too? It is not very considerate, I would say. Don't I have "Rights" too.

Yes, it happens to other beekeepers, and it's one of the reasons I constantly encourage new beekeepers to get involved with a local beekeeping club. The local beeks can help steer you to reliable, local suppliers, and help you avoid a lot of beginner pitfalls. You said you had a mentor; did you ask him for recommendations on where to get bees? or ask his opinion about getting package bees from Ohio - before - you ordered?

 

I did not have that problem. Are you sure it wsant the postal service that was the issue? UPS called me to let me know they had them, they were keeping them cool, and they were headed my way. I bet you I lost MAYBE 100 bees....He answered all my questions and emails. If you paid him, dispute the charges and get your $$ back.

 

Lost 100 bees? In my case, all I ended up with was 100 LIVING bees...the rest, all dead. Queen included. I called him, he apologized, said he would send a new package, and that was that. I haven't heard from him since. He won't answer his emails and his phone. Its not just me, go to his Ebay listing and look at all the negative ratings he's gotten this past week alone. On believe me, I am dealing with my bank, PayPal, UPS and other agencies. :waiting:

Look at the buyer comments: http://myworld.ebay.com/birdsnbees60/

 

NC-Bee-Dude actually looks like he had pretty good feedback until the last week or so. Perhaps he had some family emergency. I would guess he tried to ship bees out once the weather got to hot, and they died. Still does not excuse no replies.

 

GA has a great supplier for Carniolans. The ones I got were only 2 lb pkgs. But those bees are stronger and nicer to work with than the Italians 3# pkgs I got from CA.

When buying from a supplier that re-sells them, I have never heard of them marking the queen. They can't just open the package up to do that. I can look for the number if you want to order from the place in GA.

 

Charmd2: I know what you mean, when you look at the C&H Apiary listing on Ebay up until about three weeks ago, all was fine. But if you look at the one beginning, I think its June 4th or 5th, he got a negative rating, and he (or somebody) blocked the buyer and said something like "you're blocked and no more negative feedback" which made me suspicious. The guy seemed genuine on the phone when he promised to make a replacement. I didn't want my money, I just wanted new bees -- then he stopped all contact by phone and email, then this week's negative ratings atarted pouring in from other buyers.

I've learned a valuable lesson, and that is, check the person out before you buy.

But you know, I'm still having fun with the one hive of bees I do have, and I'm not going to let this one experience sour me. I know there are some really good (and honest) beekeepers amongst us!

 

Blossom,

I live in Wilkes Co, NC. Brushy Mtn and Miller Bee Supply are in Wilkes which is a lot closer to you than Ohio or CA. They only sell Italians though. Brushy Mtn has 3 bee days and Miller's have 2 bee days. Sorry you had a bad experience.

 

I agree, no reason to avoid contact at all. It makes no sense. But, I will say that his shipping policy directly reflects what he has seen.....dead bees. UPS has some to do with that as well as the heat. I have nothing personal vested..just great bees that I am very happy with. I did send him an email to thank him and to ask him a breif question, and recieved no response either. It is Ocilla after all....lol

 

I have to reply in Denzils behalf. He's one of only a few bee sellers in our part of the state (northern mid Ohio) He and the other bees sellers around us all buy packaged bees in bulk and resell them. If they aren't from CA then they may be from NC or any other state. I looked all over the internet while waiting for my package to arrive and discovered that it's not set in stone where the bees will come from no matter who is selling them. Then there is the fact that many won't ship, period.
Denzils business is a small family run operation. When the packages are arriving they are swamped trying to make sure the ladies are all taken care of and on their way asap. We picked up our package at 7:30PM because they stay open late for those of us that work and have to travel to get to their shop. It was very cold this spring and the packages were shipped to Ohio late.
I'm sorry you were disappointed but please consider it a bad representation of a good small business. I'd recommend their shop to anyone. Denzil, his wife and family are extremely helpful and knowlegable about beekeeping. My NWC is an egg laying fiend she has created a beautiful bounty of bees.

 

I had to run to Denzils shop this afternoon, the swarm I collected was in need of a screened bottom board. While there his wife was dealing with the phone, hunting receipts. Denzil mentioned that they were shipping "Overnight" and the packages were taking three days to arrive! He said "Can you believe overnight to Toledo (about 2 hours from us) took 3 days? The shippers aren't answering the phones, returning calls. She's been trying for days to get through."
May be that ebayer is running into the same problem. I'm not defending the seller, just thought I might toss this out. I think we all need to double check the way bees are shipped and see how long they are getting delayed.

 

oberlinmom writes:
Denzil mentioned that they were shipping "Overnight" and the packages were taking three days to arrive! He said "Can you believe overnight to Toledo (about 2 hours from us) took 3 days? The shippers aren't answering the phones, returning calls. She's been trying for days to get through."

tecumseh:
sounds about right and it seems that somethings haven't changed in decades.

as some folks here know I produce a small number of nucs and queens which at this point in time are all sold picked up at my residence. I can only do this (insist on this) because I have no ambition of producing large numbers of either item. I would like to generate a reputation of delivering a quality product which (to my way of thinking) becomes more and more difficult when you buy into the system where you are depending on someone else, who is depending on someone else, who is depending on someone else etc, etc, ect.... quite evidently (again to my way of thinking) when 'one someone' falls down the quality of whatever you are producing suffers.

years ago I worked for the folks that provided the packages sold thru the sears and roebuck farm catalogue and became extremely aware of the problems in shipping live creatures across the country. there was very little problems in these packages from death loss of bees or queens when the shipping point was anywhere within a three state area but when you shipped packages east and across the mississippi river or to the west coast you invariable had to accept increased death losses. I expect the same 'depending on someone' in a long delivery chain was oftentime the culprit. all that really was required was ONE someone messing up to result in the delivery of a dead or dying package. if these dead packages where scheduled late enough (and as the weather warmed in the season the possiblities of death loss increased) it became almost impossible to simply replace these as often times the bees (hives) themselves had been moved to the opposite side of the country (from texas to north dakota) by the time information concerning 'the problem' works it way back down thru the delivery system.

to the buyers of packages and nucs I would also add. 50 years amongst the bees has suggest to me that there are are a number of highly reputable folks in the bee business who will exert a lot of effort into doing exactly what they promise to do... by and large these folks want the newbees first experience in beekeeping to be positive. there are also a goodly number of shister + a small number of folks with almost no experience in raising bees... both of these are highly likely to leave the first time buyer with a bad taste in their mouth (the intentions of the two groups are not the same). either of these folks will take your money but have little care as to whether you experience is positive or not once they have your money in their hands.

from this there is all kinds of information which should suggest why buying as close to your locality as possible is a better choice for most first time buyers.