Dan Jones  of SW Pennsylvania writes
<snip>
>      "already booked
>       till mid May. I have been told that I need to get the bees
>        in the hives in mid April.
>
>        Is there any place else I should try? Should I just wait til
>        May and start then?"<snip>
 
"A swarm in May is worth a load of hay.
 A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.
 A swarm in July isn't worth a fly."
 
It would be far far far better to get your packages in early to mid April -
and if you are starting them on foundation be certain to feed them until
they get that comb drawn or just give up on taking the feed because nectar
is so plentiful.  Of course you must stop feeding before putting on undrawn
(or drawn) supers for honey storage.
 
I would call around a bit more and see if someone has packages available -
maybe they don't.  The past few years have seen horrific losses across the
country and now with honey prices up you can bet some old equipment is
going to be getting filled with bees this Spring.  Thus demand was high
very early - also when the honey price passes a certain point the package
producers divert more colonies into the far less labor intensive pursuit of
honey production.
 
Another option is to purchase good healthy nucs.  Emphasis on HEALTHY and
STRONG (is what good means).  Get with your local, regional or state bee
club to see who has a reputation of selling good nucs in your area.  Also
many times a commercial beekeeper will buy extra packages to sell to those
that need only a few.  He can cover part of the transport cost that way and
if he has the space on the truck it is worth it to do that.  You can find
that out through the clubs as well.
 
Nucs are about one full month ahead of packages from the get go.  Thus a
package installed on 1 April is roughly equivalent to a four frame nuc
installed on 1 May.  In the nucs the queen is already accepted and is
already laying - she likely has her own bees emerging and is past the stage
of early supersedure (the 3 frame syndrome) as well.  If you are getting
the impression I would go with good HEALTHY nucs you are right on target.
 
 
Jack Griffes
Country Jack's Honeybee Farm
Horseshoeing by Jack Griffes
Ottawa Lake, MI 49267
USA
e-mail   [log in to unmask]
Web page  http://www2.netcom.com/~griffes/