FAQs & Policies
Pro Tips to help with acceptance:
- Carefully watch our installation video!
- Introduce the queen into young bees and healthy bees
- Make sure the hive has plenty of food (sugar water or honey)
- Ensure there are no virgin queen or natural cells present
- Old queen eliminated 24-48 prior to installing new queen
- Some beekeepers use lemongrass oil to mask the previous queens pheromones
Dalan’s AFB vaccine protects against American Foulbrood Disease, a highly contagious and deadly disease that affects developing bee larvae. The
Dalan vaccine technology exposes queen bees to inactive (i.e., “dead”) bacteria, which enables the larvae hatched in the hive to resist infection.
This new tool is the first and only honeybee vaccine approved by the USDA to help in the fight against AFB. The vaccine is safe, non-chemical, and suitable for use in organic agriculture.
Read more about how it works at https://www.dalan.com/science
BEFORE YOUR PACKAGE ARRIVES
Set up your hive equipment and site ahead of time. Prepare the hive box and frames before you pick up your package. Place your hive where you will instal and keep your bees. It can be difficult to move a hive once the bees are installed and have oriented to that hive spot. The hive entrance should receive morning sun, the hive should be raised off the ground and it should be in a mostly dry area.
READY HIVE FOR INSTALL
Make the space to install the bees. Remove the top, inner cover and four inner drawers from the hive. Place the frames you remove nearby. You will shake the bees into this open space.
REMOVE FEEDER & QUEEN
Use the hive tool to gently remove syrup feeder and queen cage. Locate the queen cage and try to keep it from falling into the package as you gently remove the syrup can. Next, remove the queen cage. Place it somewhere safe and out of direct sunlight. Tip: Spray the outside of the package light with sugar water from a clean container to help keep bees from flying as you perform this step.
SHAKE BEES INTO THE HIVE
Shake bees out of the package and into the hive. Gently shake the bees out of the package into the hive where the frames were removed. After most of the bees are out of the package, place it near the hive entrance so any remaining bees can enter. Slowly replace the frames that you removed back into the hive. Tip: Place an empty box with no frames on top of the box that you are shaking the bees into to avoid bees from flying around while you work.
INSTALL THE QUEEN
Install the queen cage into the center of the hive. Unscrew the queen cage’s twit cap. do NOT remove the sugar pug barrier. Secure the queen cage between two frames near the center of the box. Position the queen cage opening slightly upward so the exit can’t become clogged and black the queen from being released. Tip: Use a larger rubber band to easily secure the queen cage to one of the frames.
CLOSE THE HIVE & WAIT
Replace the hive top and wait for the queen to be released. How that your package is installed, wait at least 48 – 72 hours to check that the queen was successfully released and remove the empty queen cage. Wait at least 1 week before any hive inspections. Remember to feed your package 1:1 sugar water to help them build wax and have energy to forage.
Honey Bee Genetics guarantees that your package bees are alive and that your package will contain a fertile queen.
However, we do not guarantee that you will be able to successfully establish a colony or “hive” with the package.
You agree that you will not attempt to hold us responsible for whatever may happen to your package after you pick up, for the survival or productivity of the hive that you establish from the package.
We will not refund any money for package bees that do not survive.
Honey Bee Genetics guarantees the queen to arrive alive & in good condition.
We guarantee our queens alive on arrival and will replace your queen free of charge if we are notified within 24 hours of delivery- with photo. Please email us a photo of the damaged queen in the cage.
If the queen was dead due to delayed shipment, please also send us a photo of the shipping label for our insurance.
We do not guarantee a successful introduction or that a queen will be accepted by the hive. Many factors, outside of our control, influence queen introduction success. We will not replace or refund any money for queen bees that have been rejected by your colony.
Bees should be installed late in the day, when the weather is cool. Avoid installing bees in the rain or if below 50F. The bees should be safe in the package with the syrup can feeder, stored in a dry, cool area inside until the weather improves.
We guarantee our queens alive on arrival and will replace your queen free of charge if we are notified within 24 hours of delivery- with photos.
Please email photos to orders@honeybeegenetics.com a photo of the damaged queen in the cage and a photo of the shipping label for our insurance.
INSPECT YOUR QUEEN AT INSTALLATION
Visually check your queen prior to package installation to ensure she’s alive in her cage, email or call us immediately if there are any issues.
THREE DAY WINDOW FROM PACKAGE PICKUP DATE
We guarantee our queens will be alive upon installation and release. We ask that you check your queen on the 3rd day to ensure she has been release properly. If something is wrong, please take a photo, then attach it to an email to orders@honeybeegenetics.com. You must call or email us within 3-5 days of pick up to be eligible for a replacement queen.
MANUAL RELEASE
Sometimes it’s necessary to manually release a queen from her cage by poking a hole in the candy to expedite the process. See our video below for helpful “Pro Tips” if needed.
If the queen has not been released in 72 hours and the other bees are not behaving aggressively toward the cage, you can aid in her release. Take measures to make sure that she doesn’t fly away upon release by opening the cage as close to the box as possible, release her inside the hive and close it immediately.
Tips for New Beekeepers:
Keep in shade and away from ants prior to transferring to you permanent hive box.
Once you open your nuc (close to evening), your bees will start orienting themselves, so be sure it’s near where your permanent hive will be.
Be sure to open the plug entrance as near to sunset as possible.
When transferring your frames, be sure to follow the same orientation and order of the frames from the cardboard to the permanent box.
Leave the temporary box on the side in front of the hive and let the leftover bees fly out. Leave it open so they can go into their new permanent hive.
**Check for eggs after 4-5 days, and if you have any issues with the queen within the first 30 days, take a photo of the queen and brood (or the issue) and we will replace your queen free of charge.
Our 5 frame nucs come with a newly mated queen that we start in a 5 frame temporary hive box as a cell and place in a mating location. We check for eggs and allow the hive to establish for at least 4 weeks before you pick up.
The nuc box is portable, so when you pick up it will be safe for transport. Your bees are established in the box from the start, plugged for transport the night before you pick up.
However, we do not guarantee that you will be able to successfully maintain your hive after pick up.
You agree that you will not attempt to hold us responsible for whatever may happen to your bees after you pick up, for the survival or productivity of the hive that you establish from the package.
We will not refund any money for nuc hives that do not survive.
We guarantee the queen to be fertile and begin laying brood within 14 days- as soon as the workers have built wax comb for her to use as a brood area. Providing the hive accepted the new queen.
We do not guarantee a successful introduction or that a queen will be accepted by the hive. Many factors, outside of our control, influence queen introduction success. We will not replace or refund any money for queen bees that have been rejected by your colony.
Remember to feed your new package 1 :1 sugar water to help them get started building wax quickly.
Tip: Eggs look like very small white commas standing vertically in the center of each cell.
There are many reasons queens may lay only drones. If you notice this happening to your hive, you will need to requeen.
Continue feeding until the bees stop consuming the sugar syrup and are able to forage and store nectar on their own. This often takes several weeks. Monitor your bees and track how much syrup they are consuming and check their wax building to decide when to remove the feeder.
Wait at least 1 week after installing a new package to begin hive inspections. You should check your hive approximately every 2 weeks or so in spring and summer and less frequently in fall. Each hive inspection should last no more than 15 – 20 minutes. You should not open the hive during winter.
Many beekeepers replace the queen approximately every 2 years. There are many reasons to replace the queen including:
Queen failed and there is no queen present
Very few or no eggs and lack of young brood in the colony
Queen has a poor laying pattern or “shotgun brood pattern”
Prevent supercedure (bees replace the queen themselves)
Colony temperament or seeking more hygienic, disease resistant bees
Making splits to increase apiary or avoid swarming
Old queen, part of routine colony maintenance
If a colony is not thriving then replacing the queen may improve the condition of the colony. If you believe that your hive is diseased, it should be treated before replacing the queen. Some beekeepers replace the queen of overly defensive or aggressive colonies with a queen that has a calmer disposition.
BE PREPARED
After the new queen arrives, remove the old queen and all queen cells.
Brush droplets of water on the outside of the queen cage periodically.
Store away from direct sunlight and pesticides.
What 24 hours after old queen is removed to install the new queen.
INSTALL NEW QUEEN
Removed the cork or cap from the cage but leave the candy plug in place and queen inside the cage for delayed release.
Insert queen cage with candy plug pointed slightly upward in the broad area between 2 frames with plenty of young bees.
Gently press the queen cage into place or secure with a rubber band.
CLOSE HIVE & WAIT
Check in 3-5 days to verify the queen was release from the cage.
If not yet released, manually release the queen directly into the hive by removing the sugar plug.
Remove any new queen cells you may find.
INSPECT THE HIVE
Queens should begin laying eggs within 1 week of being release from the queen cage.
1 week after the queen is release, check for eggs, located the queen, and remove any queen cells you may find.
Continue regular hive inspections and maintenance.
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