At 10:14 AM 4/20/01 -0400, Coleene Davidson wrote:

>-After a 1300 mile round trip to pick up package bees(Carniolans)-If these
>bees are supposed to be the best at weathering the harsh winter of the
>north, why are all of the package producers in California?

It is a timing issue.  Bees in southern climates build up earlier in the
year than up north.  If you got packages built up in Minnesota, they would
be available too late in the year to capitalize on your local spring
flow.  You would end up feeding/medicating/overwintering these bees for a
year before getting anything useful from them.  The old nursery rhyme sums
it up nicely <http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/swarmofbees.htm>:

A Swarm of Bees in May

A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly.


Mike Churchill, Beginning Beekeeper | What's the buzz all about?
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