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Feel free to give us a call with any of your beekeeping related questions.
2013 Queen & Package Bees Prices
Order just queens or
3 lb. package bees below.
We are sold out of package bees for this year.
We do have Italian and Carniolan queens in stock to ship from our
location here in Pennsylvania.
We ship queens via UPS ground locally and
either next day or second day air depending on your location.
If you have a
question about the shipping cost, give us a call or send an email.
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Queens Only |
Price |
Order Queens Only |
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Italian Queen |
$ 32.95 | |
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Carniolan Queen |
$ 32.95 | |
| Buckfast Queen | No Longer Available | |
| All American Queen | No Longer Available | |
| Please read our statement on shipping and receiving bees below. | ||
Click here
to watch a short video on how to install package bees.
Also available on
YouTube.
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Price |
Order Package Bees |
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Italian 3 lbs. |
SOLD OUT | |
| Buckfast 3
lbs. with Clipped & Marked Queen |
SOLD OUT | |
| All American 3
lbs. with Clipped & Marked Queen |
SOLD OUT | |
| 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. Please read our statement on shipping and receiving bees below. Thank You! | ||
| 5 Frame Nucs | Price | Ordering |
| Pick up Only | $ ???? | We are not going to offer nucs this year because we are using any nucs we produce to replace our own winter killed hives...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. |
| 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. Package bees are shipped on a first ordered first shipped basis so if you wait to order until April your bees may not ship until the end of May. Most packages of bees are shipped via Priority Mail. When 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. For example if you live in California, we will most likely ship your queen bee via Next Day Air which may cost as much as $ 50.00 or $ 60.00. However, if you are relatively close to us we will use regular ground shipping which starts around $ 15.00. 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. If you want to request a cheaper shipping method you can, however we will not guarantee the queens safe arrival and they will be shipped at your risk. Your bees may or may not ship from our location here in Pennsylvania. We use many different package bee producers to meet orders and the packages are shipped directly to you from the producer that is closest to your area (if possible) to shorten shipping time and stress on your bees. Bees are not items that are stocked in a warehouse and ship days are effected by weather, the postal service and many other factors. Because package bee time is one of the busiest times of year, we are not always informed when the package bees actually ship. Please just plan to receive your bees sometime after the proposed date. 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. We will not refund any money or reship any bees if you take the bees home and call us the following day. We also request that you email us a picture of the package you received with the bees still in it, dead and alive, so we can determine what needs to be done. 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. 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.
ALL AMERICAN QUEENS
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GENTLE
- The All American bees are not inclined to sting. 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. |
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QUICK BUILD-UP
- The Queens 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. |
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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. |
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HIGH HONEY PRODUCTION - The All Americans 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. |
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WINTERING
- The All Americans 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. |
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PROPOLIZING
- Not bad - about medium |
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HOUSEKEEPING
- These bees keep a very clean, neat, orderly hive with very little
brace comb |
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ADAPTATION
- The All Americans 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. |
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COMPATIBILITY
- These bees cross well with other breeds |
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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. |
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BUCKFAST
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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. |
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During a two year test of six stocks of bees at the University of
Minnesota, the Buckfast ranked: |
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Nosema in Queens - none |
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Acceptance - BEST (100%) |
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Spring Buildup - BEST |
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Gentleness - very gentle (second just behind Midnites) |
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Swarming Tendency - very low (ranked second) |
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Propolizing - slight (All Buckfast colonies) |
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Longevity of Queens - TIED FOR BEST (87% after 16 months) |
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Wintering - TIED FOR BEST |
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and.. |
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HONEY PRODUCTION - BEST (during two years). For details see the
February, March, and April 1982 issues of American Bee Journal. |
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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.
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
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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. |
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Email us at: sales@draperbee.com or call us on our toll free line: 800-233-4273 with any questions.
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Royal W. Draper
