Reasons for crappy east coast packages this year #1

1061 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by dogsoldier13, Jul 16, 2009

BjornBee

Discussion Starter · Jul 15, 2009

Got back from HAS this past saturday night. In one interesting conversation, details were discussed about a major package producer who brought in several truckloads of bees to shake bees from, and perhaps pull the queens also. This package producer was from Georgia. The bees were from California.

So how old were the queens being pulled?
How stressed were the bees?

And to think how many stories I have heard about packages obsconding, failing, queens superseding, queens never laying an egg, and so on.

Imagine that.....getting worn out, possibly tainted queens, last years queens, and bees from the west coast, after they were used for almonds. :x

Hmmmm.

And don't ask. I'm not naming names. This is for discussion. Not calling out people.

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tecumseh

· #2 · Jul 16, 2009

old queens being placed in packages and being sold as 'this season' is certainly nothing new. actually it was a 'trick' pointed out to me by one of my mentors 3 decades ago in some queens he had purchased to place in packages which he did sell. the name of the producer you would definitely recognize, but like bjorn I will name no names.

this season here for rearing queens was horrible. the 'season' just wouldn't cooperate. extremely high winds that continued for weeks had the net effect of producing a significant number of drone layers. I also suspect via conversation that anyone that didn't mediate bees for nosema likely had significant problems with superscedure.

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