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Draper's 2009 Queens and Updated on: |
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Draper's 2009 Queens and Updated on: |
Feel free to give us a call with any of your beekeeping related questions.
2009 Queen & Package Bees Prices
| When ordering online, please enter how many
you would like and whether or not you would like your queen marked. Of
course you can continue to place your order by phone, but by ordering
online the whole process will be easier for all of us. Online you can give
us all of your information, including your credit card number in a secure
shopping cart, without having to call us. Please provide both a shipping
and mailing address if applicable and a day time phone number when you
checkout. We do not inventory queens in the early spring, simply because
we can not store them successfully until it warms up. All early queen
orders will be shipped directly from one of our suppliers until the time
that we get them in stock here. We normally have queens in stock sometime
in late April. Also, make sure you read the statement on shipping costs below.
Thank you!
UPDATE: 10/29/08 Queen Shipping Costs: When you checkout you will see that the price per queen does not include shipping. There are many shipping options depending on your location and how many queens you order. For more information click here. We can clip and mark queens for $ 5.00 each just select "Marked" or "Clipped & Marked" from the drop down when ordering. |
If you would like more information about the different types of bees available click here.
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Dead packages or queens must be reported the day they arrive if you want to have the bees reshipped or money refunded. We will not refund any money or reship the queens if you call us the following day. We may request that you send the dead queen back to us. |
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Queens |
Price |
Online Ordering |
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Italian |
$ 23.95 |
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Italian/Russian |
$ 23.95 |
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Carniolan |
$ 23.95 |
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Minnesota Hygienic/ |
$ 23.95 |
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| Buckfast | $ 23.95 | |
| All American | $ 23.95 |
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We hope to inventory a good supply of queens throughout the summer, if the "add to cart" button is visible, we have that type of queen available. Sometimes we get a lot of orders in all at once and may run out. If this happens we will let you know your options by email or phone. |
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Package Bees |
Price |
Online Ordering |
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Italian 3 lbs. |
$ 80.00 |
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| Buckfast 3
lbs. with queen |
$ 130.00 Including Shipping |
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| All American 3
lbs. with queen |
$ 130.00 Including Shipping |
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| If you have your package bees shipped, the shopping cart will read $0.00 for shipping when you checkout because standard shipping on package bees is calculated using the drop down menus and not by the shopping cart. Thank You! | ||
| 5 Frame Nucs | Price | Ordering |
| Pick up Only | $ 85.00 | It is too early to know the availability of nucs for the 2009 season. We will post an update as soon as we can. |
For a printable
(.PDF) queen & package bee price sheet click here.|
If you would
like more information about the different types of bees available
click here. |
| To all
shipped
package bee customers, When you order package bees from Draper’s we will do our best to inform you of ship dates and any information concerning your order. Most packages of bees are shipped via Priority Mail and once we start inventorying queens we prefer to ship them by U.P.S. Because of zone restrictions (distance from shipper), some package bee and queen orders may be subject to other charges such as next day air. These charges cannot be absorbed by Drapers and will be charged to the customer. This is good for the customer because bees shipped great distances will be in transit less time. Your bees may or may not ship from our location here in Pennsylvania. We use many different package bee producers to meet orders and we have some packages shipped directly to you from the producer that is closest to your area to shorten shipping time and stress on your bees. If you order multiple types of bees they will be shipped separately. Because of this, we may not know exact ship days on all orders and this also hinders our ability to make changes to orders late in the season. Bees are not items that are stocked in a warehouse and ship days are effected by weather, the postal service and many other factors. It is your responsibility to make arrangements to pick up your bees at the post office. If you are going out of town and are not available to pick up your bees, you will need to make arrangements with someone to pick them up for you. We are not responsible if you do not pick up your bees when they arrive at the post office and they die. Dead packages or queens must be reported the day they arrive and confirmed by the postmaster if you want to have the bees reshipped or money refunded. We will not refund any money or reship any bees if you take the bees home and call us the following day. We may request that you send the dead queen back to us. Package bees must be prepaid before we can ship them, sorry no C.O.D. orders. The spring is the busiest time of year for us and we thank you for your patience. |
For some great information on honeybee pests and diseases click
here!
This will direct you to another website.
We sell and buy used equipment if you are looking for
something
or would like to sell an item click here.
About the Different Kinds of Honeybees
ITALIAN / RUSSIAN
This bee is a mix between northern breed Italians and Russian bees. These queens are produced in the north, are very gentle and because of their northern roots they produce great wintering bees.
MINNESOTA HYGIENIC / CARNIOLAN
This bee is a mix between the Minnesota Hygienic and Carniolan bees. They tend to have a larger population and have good honey production, however they may need to be fed during times of dearth. They are excellent for pollination! Hygienic behavior of honey bees is the primary natural defense against American foulbrood and chalkbrood. Hygienic bees detect, uncap, and remove diseased brood from the combs before the disease becomes infectious. Hygienic behavior also is one defense against varroa mites.
CARNIOLAN
The bee is the subspecies of the Western honey bee that has naturalized and adapted to the Carniola region of Slovenia, the Southern part of the Austrian Alps and North Balkan. These bees are known as Carniolans, or short Carnies, in English. At present this race (i.e., subspecies) is the second most popular among beekeepers (after the Italian honey bees). It is favored among beekeepers for several reasons, not the least being its ability to defend itself successfully against insect pests while at the same time being extremely gentle in its behavior toward beekeepers. These bees are particularly adept at adjusting worker population to nectar availability. It relies on these rapid adjustments of population levels to rapidly expand worker bee populations after nectar becomes available in the spring, and, again, to rapidly cut off brood production when nectar ceases to be available in quantity. It meets periods of high nectar with high worker populations and consequently stores large quantities of honey and pollen during those periods. They are resistant to some diseases and parasites that can debilitate hives of other subspecies.
ALL AMERICAN QUEENS
The All American Queen is an Italian strain that our supplier has been improving for 81 years. Only superior performers are selected to become breeders. In general, the darker bees have shown the best traits, so their bees are not yellow but tend to be somewhat dark and quite variable in color. They tend to keep an open brood nest, as opposed to the Buckfast's tendency to put more honey down. The All-Americans are also showing a high resistance to tracheal mites. They are excellent honey producers and are the preferred breed for the Southern States as well as the desert Southwest and California.
GENTLE - They are easy to handle because they remain quiet on the combs and do not run and boil out of the hive when it is opened.
QUICK BUILD-UP - They are prolific and, under favorable conditions, build up very quickly. In some northern areas truckloads of two pound packages produce an average of 225 pounds of honey year after year.
LOW SWARMING TENDENCY - It is characteristic of the species that unmanaged bees must swarm to preserve the race. Although our bees build up very strong, they have been bred not to swarm if they are given plenty of room.
HIGH HONEY PRODUCTION - They will produce more honey than ordinary bees which means more money for the beekeeper at the end of the year. They are capable of producing enormous crops if the weather cooperates.
WINTERING - They keep a rather large open brood nest, but normally will store honey in the brood nest if they are crowded down during the fall honey flow. They winter best in two- or three-story colonies.
PROPOLIZING - Not bad - about medium.
HOUSEKEEPING - These bees keep a very clean, neat, orderly hive with very little brace comb.
ADAPTATION - They seem to be well adapted to all climatic conditions. In the northern latitudes they are used successfully by beekeepers who overwinter, by beekeepers who operate with package bees, and by beekeepers who go south to make up nucs.
COMPATIBILITY - These bees cross well with other breeds.
COLOR - Variable. While breeding in good characteristics we did not give much weight to color. The general appearance of the colony is that of dark and hardy Italians.
ITALIAN QUEENS
Survivor Italians continue to be our most popular strain. This strain has been maintained by introducing queens from survivor colonies where mite damage has been extensive. The assumption is that these have characteristics to enable them to withstand damage caused by mites.
BUCKFAST QUEENS
At Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England, Brother Adam's primary aim was to breed a bee with high resistance to tracheal mites. When he had accomplished that, he began incorporating good traits he found in various races of bees during his extensive travels. He developed a bee which was gentle, had highly fecund queens, were high honey producers with a low swarming tendency, and were good wintering bees with a low consumption of stores.
An excellent choice for the Northern States and the East Coast Region.
During a two year test of six stocks of bees at the University of Minnesota, the Buckfast ranked:
Nosema in Queens - none
Acceptance - BEST (100%)
Spring Buildup - BEST
Gentleness - very gentle (second just behind Midnites)
Swarming Tendency - very low (ranked second)
Propolizing - slight (All Buckfast colonies)
Longevity of Queens - TIED FOR BEST (87% after 16 months)
Wintering - TIED FOR BEST
HONEY PRODUCTION - BEST (during two years). For details see the February, March,
and April 1982 issues of American Bee Journal.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR INTRODUCING QUEENS
AND HIVING PACKAGE BEES
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Introducing Queens: Make sure your hive is queenless. Remove the
cork from the candy end of the queen
cage. Wedge the queen cage between two of the center frames with the
screen on the cage exposed downward
toward the bottom of the hive so that the bees can access the queen
through the screen. You can also carve out a spot in one of the frames, if
you have drawn comb, for the queen cage to fit into with the sugar side
down and the screen facing inward between the frames. The bees must also have
access to the hole in the candy end of the cage. Take care to ensure that the queen
cage is securely embedded in wax. If
the cage falls to the bottom of the hive the queen may not survive. The
queen must be placed in the part of the hive
where the bees are clustered. Close the hive and wait for 3 or 4 days before
opening it. After that time open the hive. If she is not out of the cage, release her by taking the screen off. |
