The Honey Factory

[duluthralphie]

If anyone has time tomorrow I will be digging through the dead bees to see if I can find the queen and put her corpse back in the cage so I can return her.

 

[R2elk]

Holy smoly. Do you have a person who can take care of the bee's. Pick them up, maybe spray sugar water until you can leave work hoping they are alive.
I hope my delivery this week goes smoother.
I believe I have to pick mine up from the post office and my wife will be able to do so if I'm busy.

I don't work. If the bees are still alive when they get here, I will be able to care for them. I have had bees delivered during a blizzard before. They did great and lasted years until I poisoned them. At the same time a semi load of bees were passing through the state on their way to Nebraska. They lost the whole truck load of bees because of the weather conditions.

My only concern is whether or not the bees and queen will be alive when they get here.

This is all due to the vendor switching from next day UPS to ground UPS for delivery.

The bees that TSC advertised with next day delivery from UPS are supposed to be shipped by USPS now. The last contact that I had from TSC said the bees were shipping on the 9th and would be at the local P.O. within 24 hours and that the next email I would get from TSC would contain the tracking information and that the USPS would call me when the bees arrived.

No tracking email and no call from USPS and no bees.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

What @duluthralphie and @R2elk are going through makes me so mad.
What in the world is wrong with all these businesses being total @^$%#$&&*!
Why does no one have any accountability or business ethics?
We've dealt with this at our dairy farm business for years but now it's seeping into every part of dealing with people on every level.
I'm truly sorry you both are having to go through all of this.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Ahh. I thought it was some auto correct, not correcting.

Nope. That's Ralphie speak.

 

[jerryse]

So nasty weather coming tomorrow . I figured last chance to work the bees for a few days . Wanted to check some frames but they were really glued in . So I added a super and queen excluder . Entrance hole in super and second brood box . Did not want them to get crowded .

 

[R2elk]

I am really confused now. UPS says the bees are on the truck for delivery today.

I just got an email from Mann Lake with a replacement order for the Saskatraz bees at $0.00. It says the bees will ship within 2 to 4 days.

I am guessing that the first batch is dead and they already know it and are shipping a second batch.

I guess that I will find out when the bees arrive today whether they are the dead ones or the replacement ones.

It is 31°F outside with 1 3/4" of snow so far. There is no way I would hive a package of bees today. I brought the Saskatraz designated hive into the greenhouse where it is currently 55°F. If the package of bees that gets delivered today are alive, I will hive them in the greenhouse for now. There are even tomato blossoms they can play with in there.

 

[duluthralphie]

I am really confused now. UPS says the bees are on the truck for delivery today.

I just got an email from Mann Lake with a replacement order for the Saskatraz bees at $0.00. It says the bees will ship within 2 to 4 days.

I am guessing that the first batch is dead and they already know it and are shipping a second batch.

I guess that I will find out when the bees arrive today whether they are the dead ones or the replacement ones.

It is 31°F outside with 1 3/4" of snow so far. There is no way I would hive a package of bees today. I brought the Saskatraz designated hive into the greenhouse where it is currently 55°F. If the package of bees that gets delivered today are alive, I will hive them in the greenhouse for now. There are even tomato blossoms they can play with in there.

If they are dead, and you happen to find the dead queen. Could you ship her corpse to me so I can slip her into my queen cage for a refund?

 

[R2elk]

If they are dead, and you happen to find the dead queen. Could you ship her corpse to me so I can slip her into my queen cage for a refund?

If it is the dead ones that show up, I planned to refuse delivery. I will wait to see what happens.

 

[duluthralphie]

If it is the dead ones that show up, I planned to refuse delivery. I will wait to see what happens.

Troublemaker!!

 

[R2elk]

Troublemaker!!

The bees were delivered at 1:44 PM today. There was no sound whatsoever coming from the package. There was about a 1/2" of bees lying on the floor of the cage. But there was a big cluster hanging from the feeder. There was no movement. The driver marked it as package damaged and recommended filing a claim.

I still have no idea if these were the original package or the replacement package. I put them in front of the fire and warmed them up. There were lots of live bees in the package. I put them in the hive in the greenhouse. They were nearly out of their gel food.

Unfortunately, the queen is dead. I did email Mann Lake about the situation and requested a new queen.

At least temporarily I have a dead queen bee in her cage.