Charlie,

As far as your comment concerning package bees vs locally produced bees.    

We have had some "experienced" bee keepers actually vocalize their ignorance by stating "California Bees" do not know how to work "Illinois flowers"..... (this was part of the rationale for not purchasing any packages)....  yes, a pure asinine statement.

If person who takes our "Introduction to Beekeeping Class" wants to start beekeeping, we strongly encourage (bordering on requiring) they start off with at least one package which they will need to install and release the queen (we recommend 2 if they can afford it).   If they want additional colonies of bees and want to go the "local" nuc route, fine.   However, we explain the nucs will cost much more and will not be ready until late May or mid June (depending on the weather).  

We think the installation of a package of bees (and the release of the queen) is one of the rituals a person needs to experience in their adventure of establishing their first colony of bees.    They can see from day to day or week to week how the bees are laying comb down on their new plasticell/ritecell or wax foundation (aspects which may not be experienced when going with a turnkey nuc).   Yes, we may have an occasional problem with improperly mated or unmated queens or a dead queen ending up in some of the packages, but the suppliers are good in providing a supply of extra queens with the packages to remedy this situation 

We also caution them to have an experienced bee keeper examine any nuc to be purchased as nucs are a common way for an unscrupulous bee keeper to get rid of their crap and make money doing it. 

If a person wants more bee colonies and really wants to learn, we recommend a person do their own splits from a healthy and vibrant colony (regardless of the source of the original queen).   They can purchase queens from a local queen producer or do the walk away split method or the On The Spot (OTS) method if they can find less than 3 day old larva on which to bend down the lower cell walls on.

Way back in the day, some older books state queens were expected to last many years (3 to 5).   This was before varroa and tracheal all the other stresses which bees now need to contend with.   Now, re-queening at least once a year (if not twice) is the recommended method for a miticide free approach of varroa control and swarm prevention.    Or a person will use one of the several synthetic or non synthetic products to treat for varroa.

I am going to stop here before I get going much further as I have other things to accomplish today.

Bottom line.... I wish you the best of success in getting your bee-bus adopted by the package providers.  Look forward to seeing it they show up in the 2015 delivery of packages.

Steve 

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