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Author Topic: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.  (Read 6372 times)

Offline beesnweeds

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3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« on: May 09, 2020, 10:21:27 am »
Just curious what others are finding this year (if you check).  Helping a few beginners install packages I always check weight of the bees along with any dead bees on the bottom of the package with crinkled wings and short abdomens. I usually follow up with a mite check before capped brood.  Nucs I also like to check for sick deformed bees, sometimes I find some not so good nucs.  This year a lot of the packages are under 3lbs coming from Wilbanks.  Maybe they need to check their scale.
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Offline Oldbeavo

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2020, 05:43:26 pm »
Maybe the bees were full of honey when packed and have digested it, so weigh less!
I don't do packaged bees, but I do know of a retailer who sells packages that he buys from the BK that is a long way from where they end up, so they must be in the package for many days.
Another BK in Australia was exporting to Canada and they had a sugar syrup dispenser in the package.

Offline beesnweeds

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2020, 06:12:09 pm »
Maybe the bees were full of honey when packed and have digested it, so weigh less!
I don't do packaged bees, but I do know of a retailer who sells packages that he buys from the BK that is a long way from where they end up, so they must be in the package for many days.
Another BK in Australia was exporting to Canada and they had a sugar syrup dispenser in the package.

If the bees were full of honey at package time I don't think they could relieve themselves during shipping to effect weight or we would see a big mess on the bottom of the cage.  The bees weren't in the package for very long and the syrup cans are full.  It seems package suppliers always get a pass.  We wouldn't be to happy if we got shorted at the deli or gas pump.  I would love to know the weights of packages of bees from NZ to Canada.
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Offline AR Beekeeper

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2020, 06:13:18 pm »
How much under weight were the packages?

Offline beesnweeds

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2020, 06:15:35 pm »
How much under weight were the packages?
1/2 #
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Offline TheHoneyPump

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2020, 11:45:35 pm »
NZ packages are 1 kg = 2.2 lbs
When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.

Offline beesnweeds

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2020, 12:10:51 am »
What's the weight when they arrive to the customer?
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Offline TheHoneyPump

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3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2020, 12:27:17 am »
1 kg + of actual bees, the syrup is not included in that weight.

If you think you have been shorted, call your supplier and get yourselves sorted.
When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.

Offline Acebird

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2020, 09:18:53 am »
NZ packages are 1 kg = 2.2 lbs
Are they still called 3lb package?
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Offline beesnweeds

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2020, 09:59:26 am »
Any Canadian and US beekeepers willing to weigh packages and post it?
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Offline beesnweeds

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2020, 10:33:26 am »


If you think you have been shorted, call your supplier and get yourselves sorted.

The issue isn't calling the middle guy to make good on it, but the beginners or others who never know they have been shorted.  The price of a pound of bees in the US is about $45.00.  So if the producer shorts 5000 packages a 1/2#  of the 20,000 or more they make that would be $112,500 extra in profit. Not bad! I'm not saying they do, but the potential is there and who checks it?
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Offline TheHoneyPump

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #11 on: May 10, 2020, 12:43:53 pm »
NZ packages are 1 kg = 2.2 lbs
Are they still called 3lb package?
No.  The NZ are called and sold in metric sizes as:  1 kg,  1.5 kg, and 2 kg 
1 kg = 2.2 lb
1.5 kg = 3.3 lb
2 kg = 4.4 lb
When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #12 on: May 11, 2020, 01:55:25 pm »
>Maybe the bees were full of honey when packed and have digested it, so weigh less!

Bingo.  They feed them up before they weigh them.  They burn it off on the trip.  The weight left as CO2 and H2O.
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Offline beesnweeds

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #13 on: May 11, 2020, 11:55:39 pm »
>Maybe the bees were full of honey when packed and have digested it, so weigh less!

Bingo.  They feed them up before they weigh them.  They burn it off on the trip.  The weight left as CO2 and H2O.

I've weighed them in the past and almost all packages are 3lbs. or more.  I don't believe they can burn 1/2 pound of honey in between 24 and 48 hour trip without taking some kind of cleansing flight.  If my hives needed that much honey to survive they then would need about 1500 pounds of stores to make it a full year.

If they are left in the cage for 4 or 5 days would they be less than 2 pounds?  Or do they weigh out 2.5 pounds of bees and feed them 1/2 a pound of honey?
« Last Edit: May 12, 2020, 12:18:02 am by beesnweeds »
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Offline Acebird

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #14 on: May 12, 2020, 08:40:40 am »

No.  The NZ are called and sold in metric sizes as:  1 kg,  1.5 kg, and 2 kg 
1 kg = 2.2 lb
1.5 kg = 3.3 lb
2 kg = 4.4 lb
Ok that is good to know but the thread was started by someone in upstate NY.
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Offline CapnChkn

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #15 on: May 12, 2020, 10:20:33 pm »
Quote
I don't believe they can burn 1/2 pound of honey in between 24 and 48 hour trip without taking some kind of cleansing flight.

Your problem here is in burning Honey vs. Pollens.  Like Mr. Bush says, Honey is carbohydrate, that breaks down into CO2 and H2O, or Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor.  Cleansing flights are almost always from eating solids.  So drinking syrup, and burning the honey they stomached wouldn't entirely build up wastes in their GI tract.  A few days without a flight probably wouldn't cause a mess.  Having months at a time without any relief would cause problems.

In this case, you have 10,000 tiny bodies trying to keep their metabolism.  I can imagine a cup of honey/syrup would be burned in 2 days.  When they're foraging, they eat that as nectar, they process the excess as honey.  I can't say what the maple flow is like in NY, I'm down here in Alabama, and the Maples start blooming in January here.
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Offline beesnweeds

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #16 on: May 12, 2020, 11:45:48 pm »

Your problem here is in burning Honey vs. Pollens.  Like Mr. Bush says, Honey is carbohydrate, that breaks down into CO2 and H2O, or Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor.  Cleansing flights are almost always from eating solids.  So drinking syrup, and burning the honey they stomached wouldn't entirely build up wastes in their GI tract.  A few days without a flight probably wouldn't cause a mess.  Having months at a time without any relief would cause problems.

In this case, you have 10,000 tiny bodies trying to keep their metabolism.  I can imagine a cup of honey/syrup would be burned in 2 days.  When they're foraging, they eat that as nectar, they process the excess as honey.  I can't say what the maple flow is like in NY, I'm down here in Alabama, and the Maples start blooming in January here.

Michael Bush said that 1/2 pound is burned off in the form of H20 and C02.  I'm not sure what C02 weighs, but I do know 1/2 pound of water is about a cup.  So you are saying that 10,000 tiny bodies will give off (expel) a cup of water in 24 hrs. to keep their metabolism?  I'm finding all this very hard to believe.  Do you have sources for this info?  This is the first I ever heard that cleansing flights are always from eating solids.
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Offline CapnChkn

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #17 on: May 13, 2020, 12:33:25 am »
"Thinking is like sin, them that doesn't is scairt of it, and them that does gets to liking it so much they can't quit!"  -Josh Billings.

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #18 on: May 13, 2020, 12:41:09 am »
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Offline Acebird

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Re: 3lb. packages not 3lbs.
« Reply #19 on: May 13, 2020, 08:57:42 am »
So you are saying that 10,000 tiny bodies will give off (expel) a cup of water in 24 hrs. to keep their metabolism?  I'm finding all this very hard to believe.  Do you have sources for this info?
I don't know where to point you to but when I was living in Upstate my bees consumed 40-50 pounds of honey.  Let's call it 50 for round numbers.  Honey is 80% water, so 40 pounds of water gets expelled through a NY winter.  That is 4.8 gal. of water!  Drowning bees from their own exhale is a thing.  Now on the other side of the equation you have 10 pounds of poop.  Loosing half of it during a January thaw is a nice thing for the bees.  When this doesn't happen the cases of nosema in the spring are greatly increased.  Yet they survive.
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