OK I screwed up big time.

[craneman54]

On 5/1/15 I thought I ordered 2 packages of bees. When in fact I ordered 2 queens. I didn't realize this till the PO called that my bees where in.I go to pick them up and I have 2 packages with 2 queen cages each. Now I have 4 queens and no bees to put them on.

Where can I get bees real fast.
I put a drop of honey and I drop of water on the screen of each cage. How should I go about keeping the queens alive till I get some bees. It may take awhile to get the bees so I need to do something with them.

Dang meds sure do mess with my head at times.:(

[BeeMaster2]

Wow. That is bad news. Sorry.
I would try to contact a local beek to get a couple of frames of bees real quick.
Maybe you can get the seller to over night 2 packages.
Where in Louisiana are you located. I know of at least 2 beeks in your state that are on this site.
Jim

[craneman54]

The seller is out of packages.
I did find a local commercial beek who will get me two packages tomorrow for $45 each with my queens and I also give him the 4 queens I have.

Crisis averted all is right now. 

[BeeMaster2]

Glad to hear it is working out.
Jim

[BeeMaster2]

As an after thought, did the seller send you the queens only because he ran out of packages.
Jim

[craneman54]

As an after thought, did the seller send you the queens only because he ran out of packages.
Jim

I don't know if that is what happened. They called Tuesday and said there were sending marked queens because they had no more unmarked ones.

[GSF]

dang craneman, if you weren't so far away I'd say come get ya one. I've had 24 swarms that I know of so far. I caught all but about 4 or 5 of them. The last one was day before yesterday.

[craneman54]

Thanks for the offer but like you say,I am just a tad too far away.

I am only 2.5 hours away from JP the beeman. I would love to go and work with him on a couple of cut outs. He says in some of his videos if you go help him he will give you some of the bees.

After I get the bees from that commercial tomorrow I will have enough for now. I still have a few traps out. I may catch a couple more swarms yet. 

[GSF]

craneman, you may want to consider attending one of the "Bud" events. I went to Bud6 and got a lot of hands on experience. In addition just listening to experience talk is a great resource too.

[craneman54]

What is a Bud event? I have not heard of that.

Actually I would like to join a bee club,but I am over an hour away from the nearest one and I can't stay away from the house for more than a couple of hours. (wife has dementia) For now I read and watch you tube and talk to a local Beek when I go to get building materials and supplies. He owns the local lumberyard.

[GSF]

http://www.beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=46012.0


Usually in April the good folks on this forum will gather around at Bud's house. This last one was called Bud7, the one before Bud6, and so on. There's some you tube videos as well. When I went to Bud6 we did swarm retrievals, splits, cut outs, inspections, and chit chatted. Great company.

[craneman54]

Wish I could go to something like that. I'd show you guys how to use an alligator claw to uncap honey frames maybe even teach ya'll how to train a gator to guard  some bee hives.

[Candiebears]

Please YouTube this! Make this happen!

Wish I could go to something like that. I'd show you guys how to use an alligator claw to uncap honey frames maybe even teach ya'll how to train a gator to guard  some bee hives.

[craneman54]

Youtube what? you didn't link anything but this thread.

Wish I could but heck man I can't even take the wife to see the kids down in New Orleans. Her Alzheimers kicks in half way there and she starts crying to go home. She is only comfortable at the house and sometimes not even then. 

[craneman54]

As an after thought, did the seller send you the queens only because he ran out of packages.
Jim

I was finally able to get hold of someone at Kellybees. I explain to her what happened about the queens. She didn't know what happened so I told her I traded the queens for a cut rate on two packages and to just charge my CC for the 2 extra queens. So now that is all cleared up I have one less thing on my mind.
When I told her I had been trying to contact someone over there ,she told me they were very short handed on operators.So if you are having trouble reaching them just keep trying and leave messages.