Project Apis m.
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Project Apis m.
    • PAm Staff
    • Scientific Advisors
    • PAm Board of Directors
    • Annual Reports >
      • 2022 Annual Report
      • 2021 Annual Report
      • 2020 Annual Report
    • Contact Us
    • Join The Team
  • News
    • PAm eNewsletter
    • Project Apis m. Blog
    • Inside the Hive TV
  • Honey Bee Research
    • Honey Bee Research
    • PAm-Costco Scholars
    • Request Funding
    • RFPs
  • Seeds For Bees
    • Apply to Enroll
    • Seeds For Bees FAQs
    • Seeds For Bees For the Grower >
      • Water Requirements
      • Cover Crop Competition
      • Nitrogen Management
      • FAQs for Growers
      • Seeds for Bees Resources
      • Seeds For Bees Net 30 Agreement
    • PAm Seed Mixes >
      • PAm Pollinator Brassica Mix
      • PAm Annual Clover Mix
      • PAm Bio Build 3 Mix
      • PAm Wildflower Mix
      • Vetch-Grain Mix
      • PAm Perennial Clover Mix
    • Seeds For Bees Supporters
  • Forage
    • Forage (Home)
    • The Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund
    • Forage Videos
  • Resources
    • Guide to Indoor Storage of Honey Bee Colonies in the USA
    • Guide to Shipping Honey Bee Queen Cells
    • Guide to Honey Bee Queen Banking
    • Best Management Practices For Beekeepers (Home) >
      • Honey Bee Nutrition
      • Varroa
      • Nosema
      • Honey Bee Equipment Management and Maintenance
      • Honey Bee Colony Management
    • Best Management Practices For Almond Growers
  • Video
  • Supporters
    • Our Supporters
    • Support Us
    • Honey Saves Hives
    • Christi Heintz Scholarship
    • Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Testimonials

Project Apis m. Blog

Shipping Queens During a Pandemic Brings New Challenges to Beekeepers.

3/15/2021

2 Comments

 
Many of us experienced pandemic-related shipping issues over the last year-especially around the holidays. The United States Postal Service (USPS) in particular is still recovering from the holiday crunch. USPS is required to ship lives bees, and helping businesses connect with their customers is part of their mission:
 
“-To serve the American people and, through the universal service obligation, bind our nation together by maintaining and operating our unique, vital and resilient infrastructure.
-To provide trusted, safe and secure communications and services between our Government and the American people, businesses and their customers, and the American people with each other.
-To serve all areas of our nation, making full use of evolving technologies.”
 
With package bee season right around the corner, and spring queen orders kicking into high gear, how is a strained USPS impacting queen and package producers?
 
Dr. Jeff Pettis, who has worked on improving bee shipping protocols said “Most shippers I know have used UPS more than USPS, but if they use the post office it’s always priority mail.” And a representative from Kona Queens indicated they are having success with FEDEX lately.
Picture
A lot of work goes into producing queens for sale. In this photo are queen cells produced as part of the ongoing Hilo Bee project, a partnership that aims to produce high-quality, Varroa-resistant queens at a commercial scale in Hawaii. https://www.hilobees.com/
Todd Prince, a queen producer based in Zebulon, North Carolina, says he typically sells about 600 queens a year, often one or two at a time. He does use priority mail and says the service over the last year has gotten very noticeably worse. “Typically, it’s 2–3-day service for delivery. I was seeing a lot of cases where it took 5,6,7,8,9 or even 10 days for delivery.” And he added, “of course, 10 days for a queen in a warmer season is detrimental to her. I can’t afford to replace 10% of the queens because they didn’t get to where they were supposed to go in time.”
 
Prince acknowledged that some issues have been made worse by the pandemic, however, events like a failure to scan packages, which leaves customers in the dark about when the queen will arrive, have become more frequent and are impacting his business. 

“I used to see 1 out of maybe 50 shipments, and last year it was maybe 8-10% of packages that were not arriving on time.”-Todd Prince, NC Queen Bee, Zebulon, NC.
 
Many queen producers will have the shipping information clearly stated on their website. A lot of US queens have to travel all the way from California or Hawaii. The physical distance alone is a major exercise in logistics, and reliable shipping methods are crucial to making the industry work.

Picture
This chart from the Bee Health Collective shows how within the beekeeping industry, the “Other Income Percentage” has changed over time. This group includes queen and package producers who derive income from the sales of those products. www.beehealthcollective.com
From the customer’s side, any beekeeper will tell you that the queen makes the colony. Indeed, the queen often takes the blame when the colony fails, and re-queening regularly is a major beekeeping cost and an investment in long-term colony health and success.
Picture
Responses to The Bee Informed Partnership’s management survey from 2015-2020 show that 45.1% of all beekeepers (commercial, sideline, and backyard) attribute at least some losses to queen failure. This number drops to 21.9% when you just look at responses from commercial beekeepers, who generally re-queen entire apiaries on a regular schedule. www.beeinformed.org
When a queen fails, it is not always obvious why. Dr. Alison McAfee, a researcher working on queen bee health in the U.S. and Canada, said, “Our research shows that queens should be kept at 15-38 C (59 - 100.4 F). If they experience temperatures outside that range for 2 hours or more, that can kill the sperm in their spermatheca and reduce their fertility. Queens are at particular risk of temperature extremes during shipping, where there are too few workers to adequately thermoregulate.”
 
The longer a queen is in transit, the more opportunity for temperature fluctuations to occur, possibly resulting in a damaged queen upon delivery.
 
Timing and temperature are also crucial for shipping packages of bees. Even if the producer is driving the bees to a drop-off location themselves, proper ventilation prevents the bees from overheating, which would hurt the queen (and the workers) in the package. In both queen and package bee shipments, the bees are supplied with enough food for the journey - not the journey plus ten days.
 
“A temperature stressed queen looks the same as any other queen, so you won't be able to tell if she's been stressed unless there were temperature loggers in the package. We are working on a lab test to detect evidence of temperature stress but that is in the early stages of development.”-Dr. Alison McAfee, NC State University and the University of British Columbia

​
Picture
A training slide explaining proper shipping techniques that meet the standard requirements of the carrier (UPS in this case) and protect the queens.
​Beekeepers care a lot about the quality of their products. Queen producers often will offer a refund or replacement if the queen delivery arrived obviously dead or dying. Some package carriers do offer insurance.  The insurance may not cover the full value of the package, and beekeepers may not be able to make a claim unless the packaging is obviously damaged (even if the bees inside are dead). Because the possible negative impacts of shipping aren’t always visible, having reliable means of shipment is key.  While some queen and package producers have multiple options for reaching their customers, other producers are worried about how ongoing USPS issues will impact their business this spring.
 
Given the pandemic, and the current discussions about overhauling USPS, we probably can’t ever expect it to return to “normal.”  The good news is that those discussions have included making USPS a more modern package carrier. Maybe the changes will increase confidence in USPS among queen and package producers.  
Picture
By. Grace Kunkel
Grace works as a Data Coordinator and assists with communications on the PAm team.  ​
2 Comments
pick and pack warehouse link
8/22/2022 09:36:57 am

Thank you so much for sharing all this wonderful info with us! It is so appreciated!

Reply
customer relations management system link
8/22/2022 12:16:08 pm

Beekeepers care a lot about the quality of their products. Queen producers often will offer a refund or replacement if the queen delivery arrived obviously dead or dying. Thank you so much for sharing all this wonderful info with us! It is so appreciated!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Almond Pollination
    Bee Informed Partnership
    Beekeeping
    Forage
    Funding Opportunities
    Honey
    Honey Bee
    Honey Bee Health
    Honey Bee Management
    Honey Bee Nutrition
    Honey Bee Research
    Neonicotinoid Research
    Nosema
    Pesticide Research
    Queen Bee
    Research
    Seeds For Bees
    Varroa

    RSS Feed

    News Archives

    December 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    September 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015

Donate online

DONATE

donate with check to:

 Project Apis m.
PO Box 26793
Salt Lake City, UT 84126​

916-287-3035

follow us

Contact us


Project Apis m. is a 501(c)5 nonprofit organization. Your donation is not deductible on your individual income tax form. There are other business, foundation, or trust tax benefits, please consult your tax advisor about the deductibility of your contributions.
Copyright © 2017 Project Apis m. All rights reserved.
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Project Apis m.
    • PAm Staff
    • Scientific Advisors
    • PAm Board of Directors
    • Annual Reports >
      • 2022 Annual Report
      • 2021 Annual Report
      • 2020 Annual Report
    • Contact Us
    • Join The Team
  • News
    • PAm eNewsletter
    • Project Apis m. Blog
    • Inside the Hive TV
  • Honey Bee Research
    • Honey Bee Research
    • PAm-Costco Scholars
    • Request Funding
    • RFPs
  • Seeds For Bees
    • Apply to Enroll
    • Seeds For Bees FAQs
    • Seeds For Bees For the Grower >
      • Water Requirements
      • Cover Crop Competition
      • Nitrogen Management
      • FAQs for Growers
      • Seeds for Bees Resources
      • Seeds For Bees Net 30 Agreement
    • PAm Seed Mixes >
      • PAm Pollinator Brassica Mix
      • PAm Annual Clover Mix
      • PAm Bio Build 3 Mix
      • PAm Wildflower Mix
      • Vetch-Grain Mix
      • PAm Perennial Clover Mix
    • Seeds For Bees Supporters
  • Forage
    • Forage (Home)
    • The Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund
    • Forage Videos
  • Resources
    • Guide to Indoor Storage of Honey Bee Colonies in the USA
    • Guide to Shipping Honey Bee Queen Cells
    • Guide to Honey Bee Queen Banking
    • Best Management Practices For Beekeepers (Home) >
      • Honey Bee Nutrition
      • Varroa
      • Nosema
      • Honey Bee Equipment Management and Maintenance
      • Honey Bee Colony Management
    • Best Management Practices For Almond Growers
  • Video
  • Supporters
    • Our Supporters
    • Support Us
    • Honey Saves Hives
    • Christi Heintz Scholarship
    • Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Testimonials