Draper's 2010 Queens and
Package Bees

Updated on:
August 21, 2010

Feel free to give us a call with any of your beekeeping related questions.

2010 Queen & Package Bees Prices

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 if you call us the following day. We do request confirmation of the arrival of the dead bees by your Post Master and we may request that you send the dead queen back to us if we only shipped you a queen.

Queens

Price
Not including Shipping

Online Ordering

Italian

$ 24.95

How Many  

Italian/Russian
(produced in the north)

$

How Many

Carniolan

$ 25.95

How Many

Minnesota Hygienic/
Carniolan

$

How Many

Buckfast Sold Out

How Many  

All American Sold Out

How Many  

Queen prices do not include shipping.

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Click here to watch a short video on how to install package bees.
Also available on YouTube.

Package Bees

Price

Online Ordering

Italian 3 lbs.
with queen

SOLD OUT
Picked Up

 SOLD OUT
Including Shipping

 How Many
 

Buckfast 3 lbs.
with Clipped & Marked Queen		 SOLD OUT
Including Shipping

How Many

All American 3 lbs.
with Clipped & Marked Queen		 SOLD OUT
Including Shipping

How Many

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!

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5 Frame Nucs Price Ordering
Pick up Only $ ???? We will not have nucs for sale this year because we will be using our own nucs to replace our own winter kill...sorry!

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.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR INTRODUCING QUEENS AND HIVING PACKAGE BEES click here.

 

To all shipped package bee and queen customers,

When you order package bees or queens 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.

Every year when we get to April 1st we can no longer make changes to, or cancel package bee or queen orders. This is because shipping begins in April and everything is scheduled, invoiced and paid for, making changes after April 1st is time consuming and costly.

We only guarantee live delivery on queens shipped to you. We can not guarantee anything that happens once the queen is placed in the hive.

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 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.

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.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR INTRODUCING QUEENS AND HIVING PACKAGE BEES
 

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.

Hives that have been queenless so long that all of the brood has hatched out do not accept queens very well. If possible, such a hive should be given one or two combs with open brood in them from another colony before introducing the new queen.

When you are re-queening, you may install the new queen immediately after killing the old one or you may wait as long as four or five days before installing the new queen.

Hiving Package Bees: Have your hive ready before the package bees arrive. Be sure the hive has been provided with honey or sugar syrup for feed. Take the cover off the package, remove the feed can, and remove the queen cage. This procedure is made easier by prying the can up with a hive tool, then gently banging the package down on the ground to dislodge the bees from the can and the queen cage. Look in the queen cage to make sure the queen is alive. If the queen is dead, telephone us immediately for a replacement. Remove 5 or 6 frames from the center of the hive. Turn the shipping cage bottom up, over the hive and shake the bees into the hive. Carefully start inserting the frames back into the hive.  Remove the cork from the candy end of the queen cage and hang the queen cage, candy end down, between two of the center frames in your hive. The bees must have access to the screen on the queen cage. Cover the hive and do not disturb it for at least 3 or 4 days. After that time the queen should be out of her cage and should have eggs laid in one or two combs. If you have started the hive on foundation only, the bees should be drawing out two or three sheets of the foundation. Starvation of the bees is the biggest hazard to successful establishment of the package of bees. Continue to feed them, taking care not to get robbing started, until you are sure the bees are producing enough honey to maintain themselves.