Some beeks are just concerned with the bottom dollar. Reading your post, it's very obvious that is not you. Asking a few questions beforehand would have prevented this. That scenario would have bothered me as well.

 

That is an admirable quality to consider the bees not just the money. I wouldn't have wanted to sell my bees to the guy either. Nothing wrong with being new but the guy you describe was totally unprepared. If I sell nucs again, I think I'll ask a few questions to determine if the buyer has some degree of experience. That may be bug some people but I don't really need to sell the nucs anyway

 

It would not bother me too bad to sell to a guy that was setting himself up for a fall as long as he had no extra expectations from me. Some body was going to sell to him and who knows what he will be like later. That might be what it takes for him to figure it out. Then are you really helping or hurting?

I do agree with wanting to be selling what you are representing. That has been my fear on my future selling of bees, the selling good and the person not knowing good from bad and then him starting robbing or some other thing he does not recognize and blaming them on my bees.

If you are selling live things, a bunch of them are going to be killed. I just don't want the killing to be my fault.

I just wonder how many baby chicks and rabbits end up dying around Easter from parents splurge buying for their kids. You can only control so much and as long as you do your part as best you can, the other guy is still going to spend some money to kill some bees.

If it is any consultation, you will probably make a preventable mistake and kill a few at some point in time. Of course you may learn from that but the other guy might also or not.

If I had ten people trying to buy five nucs, I could do my best to pigeon hole those into categories and tell five of them, "Your not worthy" but that is a different can of worms. I would not have liked getting stung in the face though.
Cheers
gww

 

I would agree with your concern. Long term reputation (who knows what will be said about your bees good/bad from any buyer) somewhat depends on both the bees you provide & the keeper after the purchase. I applaud your wanting to do a good job, have satisfied customers, and get referral business. A few phone interview questions would likely help tip you off in the future to prevent this (how many hives do you have/how many years keeping bees/attended bee class, etc.). That being said, you can't fix stupid.

 

I do sometimes think there should be an "aptitude test." Personally, I REFUSE to install bees for someone. If they want to keep bees, they need to do it themselves. I did have a lady a couple years ago offer me money to come install her bees. I told her "its springtime and I am a beekeeper. there is NO WAY I have time to drive to your place and install your bees." I offered that If she came in the late afternoon, I could install a nuc in one of my own hives so she could see how it is done, and then take her own nucs home to install at home. I thought that was a good comprimise and she seemed happy with the deal. I am not in the business of doing other peoples beekeeping, but I suppose if you are in the right location, that could be your business...

A few things. First I start taking orders in February and am usually sold out by the end of march. Although I do take a "waiting list." This keeps away the people who with little foresight who buy a hive body in may and go looking for bees. Those people I tell them to spend the summer looking for a mentor, reading, and call me next february. Most people are pretty good about asking questions if they are completely green, or even more experienced.

I also try to have a conversation with them when they place the order. I am very open to answer questions whether phone or email. I make sure they know they need to feed, and if they mention jar type feeders I will happily sell them a frame style feeder. I also make sure they at least know the local bee club exists. Its up to them to go to meetings but the wont if they don't know about it. Oregon has a great master beekeeper program that pairs students with mentors and one of the local extension offices does a monthly day in the apiary. I also will recommend a book or two and a subscription to the american bee journal, or at least try to pawn off a stack of back issues.

I don't think there are many beekeepers who feel very good about selling bees to people who they perceive to be doomed failures.
Personally, I really want people to be successful. I feel elated when a past nuc customer becomes a queen customer. That means they are figuring it out. And while I cannot devote a huge amount of time helping beginners, we do our best. I happily talk at the local bee-club when asked and typically we offer a hands on workshop at least once a year at our shop (we haven't done it this year because Kids take a lot of time and are way higher on my priority list). I have also had people come and "help" for a day or an afternoon. "help" sometimes is just schlepping a bucket of syrup and talking about what I am doing, but I have had a couple people show enough competence to pull brood/requeen.... All of these things take time, but in the long run make me feel like we are doing our best. It is also really good for customer relationships and brings us lots of return customers (again, doesn't make me super happy but at least they aren't upset with me and don't go looking for someone else's nucs). Those customers also give lots of good reviews and when their acquaintances want to start bees, they send them to us.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I don’t make my living doing this, it’s more to pay my equipment costs and provide some protection money to the wife, so I’m not afraid to lose a sale. I think from now on I’m going to ask some questions and only sell to people I feel like have put in a reasonable amount of effort into being successful. It’s more important to me to feel happy about the interaction than to make a quick buck.

 

I sell to everyone. Most people pickup but I have completed a few installs. Your always gonna have clueless folks. That's true in every industry. It's just the way it goes.

 

Most of mine get sold to club member or people that have taken our beginner class.

 

I had a lady call me about three weeks ago wanting a couple nucs and were ready to pick up right then.I a little she called back and wanted 4 nucs if I had them.Well yes I did.Her brother was supposed to be on the way to pick them up then.In another little bit she ask if I had another two nucs for a total of 6.Well in a little bit I got another call and said they didnt have any houses for them.Well I just told her to forget it and get their bees from someone else.I help people and they can call or visit all they want and I will help but some are going to put them in a box and thats as far as it will go.You can sell to them but you cant make them take care of them so just use your own judgment!!!

 

Burns357

I sell to everyone. Most people pickup but I have completed a few installs. Your always gonna have clueless folks. That's true in every industry. It's just the way it goes.

:thumbsup:
Cheers
gww

 

I hope to produce around 15 nucs to overwinter this year as my first attempt to make beekeeping less expensive. There is no way in hell that I would sell them to someone who I suspected was going to kill them in short order. Fortunately, our bee club has a new beekeeper training class every spring so there is a ready pool of eager buyers that at least have a clue.

 

I don't know if you mean fall nucs but spring nucs are significantly easier to get established. I've made fall nucs before but it can be very difficult to get them to build unless the rainfall is good in a time of the year when there's no margin of error.

 

Technically summer nucs. They still have to be fed like crazy. Made three last year but lost two due to late application of Apivar. The one that survived has been split twice already. Overwintered nucs here in VA for a March delivery, then spring nucs for late April delivery. All with locally raised and mated queens.

With all the work involved in getting the bees strong enough to survive, and then taking care of them through the winter, I would hate to see them perish due to someone else's neglect.

 

With all the work involved in getting the bees strong enough to survive, and then taking care of them through the winter, I would hate to see them perish due to someone else's neglect.

I know what you mean and completely agree.

 

Jw
Your bee club must have better new members then mine. It seems like the few times I went that lots of the members were losing hives. It doesn't mean they weren't trying but I am not sure my odds of selling to new members of the bee club would make it much better for the bees then selling them on craigs list. Some people get it and some never do and some eventually do. I am serious, I wonder if people are not going to the bee clubs cause they're not having success?

This is not meant to be a put down of good willed people that do attend club meetings. It is just what I have seen when going to them. I would still sell to those members and hope for their better success next time and do it for the politics of the thing and cause I like them but I would not say to those at the meeting, you can have one but I won't sell one to him.

I look at it more that if the guy lost them and is still willing to try, I will try and help him by providing him some bees other then the package he bought from the south last year. If he kills them, there is only so much I can do. I would rather sell to him then someone I had no relationship with, though I would try and be clear that it was still on him to learn how to keep them alive.

You never know in life who is really going to shine in the end regardless of mistakes they make in the beginning.

If they are like me (or you on your late mite treatments of last years nucs). there might be a few mistakes before I get it down to a science.

Who really knows who is going to get bit by the bug after having a few bees around for a bit regardless of the first round outcome. I don't mind being of some help but am not my buyers keeper. I knew a guy that caught a swarm and showed up at a meeting asking if anybody had any frames they could spare cause he had just put them in a box. It would not surprise me if he did not do better then those who had a thousand bucks in their first hive. He was better then me, I sprayed a little swarm that was under my solar panels a little before I got bees cause I did not know what it was till after I got bees and seen a few. Just saying.
Cheers
gww

 

When the bees leave our place they are not ours any longer. Repeat customers.

 

+1

I feel like your trying to make a statement about your bees. However it seems like its more a statement about reading books by there covers. You have no way of knowing that the guy with the costco hive and no gear actually has a really good mentor neighbor vs someone else that just bought a beginner package off a website and wont be checking on the hive for the rest of the year. I've been doing it for 10 years now and I still make mistakes. I dont have 100% overwinter rates. Just because your first impression of the new beek is one thing, that does not guarantee success or failure on their part with the new bees.

You got to ask yourself, are you in the mentor business or the selling bees business. If its selling bees then a sale to one person is no different than a sale to the next as long as they both paid.

Edit - I also have a hobby farm and raise real livestock. Bees are livestock. They are not my backyard pets. Livestock get sold, Livestock turn into food, they dont sleep at the foot of your bed. I do my best to raise them well, and provide what they need to thrive, But at the end of the day, they are livestock.

 

I live in Colorado too and I was warned about those costco hives, because you need two deep boxes in Colorado for your bees to survive. Also I have been a beek for a little over four weeks, and before I had bees I spent TONS of time researching. So much so that at my bee supply store I was kind of teaching the sideliner beekeepers 25+hives, without bees. I told about venom collectors, invert sugar, and stuff they already knew, and im 13 years old. My advice is you do not deserve bees if you don't even try to learn about how they work and how to KEEP them, not be bee-havers.

 

every one of us was a beginner at some point in our lives

 

Sold hundreds of nucs this spring in 4 states. I dont have time to question peoples abilities. They want to try bees. I'm all for them. They order off a website early in the year. The website captures their contact info. An email is sent back letting them know what equipment they will need as well as where to send their deposit. No deposit no reserved nucs. I point all of them to beesource, their state and local clubs as well as their inspector in the initial email. I sell them a quality product. I mark the queens to help them. I have screen on the top so they can see how full the nucs are when they pick them up. I give an instruction sheet with each order. In addition to all of that I try to make a newsletter letting them know what we are doing with our bees bimonthly. Treating, feeding. etc. I answer my phone. I will look at text pictures. I return emails. I want them to succeed. After all of this we have few problems. I would love to have the time to give a few classes and many have asked for this. I will probably start doing it 2019.
The point is you can help the new beekeepers too without it being a hassle. If they get off to a good start they got a great chance of succeeding Which makes great repeat customers.

 

Hillbillybees, you sound like a quality nuc supplier. Thank you!! I will find your website if I can and point people your direction if our local nuc suppliers get sold out. We have some real good ones around here also.

 

When the person I bought my nuc from learned that I was a total newbie,(Iwas supposed to pick them up), he decided to bring the bees over and install them for me.
I expected that he was also going to check me out and if I didnt measure up, I wouldnt get the nuc and that pretty much what happened.
I made sure the smoker was lit, my jacket and gloves were handy, the NZ Beeks bible on the outside table along with the flip card of pests and diseases...and I could answer all the questions he and his wife asked me. I also spotted the Queen before they did when he was putting that frame into the hive.

You do have a right to say "no, please get more learning and/or experience under your belt and I will be only too happy to provide you with some bees"
Other people can suffer from their lack of knowledge too.

 

1. When I advertise, I put caution in writing about live stock management. I also stress importance of taking classes, disease and nutrition management.
2. The advertisement also clearly states about no refunds, replacements or returns.
3. When they come by to pick up, I give them printed sheet about caring for Nucs / Bees, again stressing importance of managing disease and nutrition.
4. I verbally stress importance of all of that and quote some numbers on winter losses .

If someone kills their bees after all that caution and education, not much I can do.

 

Where do you buy your nucs from pgayle?