Anyone who has ever purchased a “three-pound package” of honeybees to be shipped through the United States Post Office knows that it can be a bit of a “you pays your money and you takes your chances” proposition.

The US Postal System has a long history of shipping packaged bees through the mail. There are many anecdotes out there about the beekeeper receiving the harried 6am phone call from the local post office: “Your bees are here! PLEASE come down here and GET THEM! NOW, please!!!” It’s truly amazing how well it does work – putting three pounds of bees, a queen, and a can of sugar syrup feed into the hands of our mail system.

This spring, Gold Star Honeybees shipped nearly three hundred 3# packages of treatment-free, small-cell raised honeybees – the perfect bee for starting an all-natural-wax top bar hive, and for the most part things went beautifully. Many customers wrote us to report that there were so few dead bees on the bottom of the package that they could actually count them. In some cases, there were only a dozen casualties, maybe twenty. That’s a terrific success!

However, shipping bees through the post office doesn’t always go perfectly. Bees are easily affected by things that the post office cannot control – even though they live by the famous creed: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

So it’s ironic that weather is the biggest concern when shipping bees – too hot, and bees die; too cold, and bees die. Being left outside on the loading dock on a freezing night can mean the death of the entire package. Being locked up inside an area with no ventilation and too high a temperature can also kill a package of bees very easily.

This is one of the reasons that at Gold Star Honeybees, we do our best to manage these dangers. We try to ship only during times of the year when the weather is likely to support the safe arrival of the bees. Throughout the industry, a rule of thumb is that if the package arrives, and contains no more than one inch – (Yes, I said an inch!) – of dead bees on the bottom, that it is still a viable package. We work hard to do much better than that!

Another concern is about how long bees can survive inside the package they ship in. Given reasonable weather, bees are capable of surviving for up to 10 days - (Yes, I said 10 days!) - inside a package, as long as it is properly protected from the elements, and as long as they don’t run out of food. But really, like the bumper sticker on a pilot’s car might say, bees “would rather be flying!” So another thing we work hard to do is to limit the amount of time that the bees spend in transit. Bees are shipped quickly, via Priority Mail, and are insured. The customer’s phone number is included on the package label so that the post office can notify the beekeeper as soon as possible upon arrival.

Occasionally something dreadful happens and a package does not survive the shipping process. A package with all the bees lying in a heap on the bottom is a heart-wrenching sight, and we cry with the beekeeper every time this happens. Customers should be aware that when they go to pick up their bees, if there are more than an inch of bees lying dead on the bottom of the package – they should refuse the shipment, and immediately contact their supplier. Then if possible, arrangements can be made for a replacement to be shipped, or a refund to be made. It is then the task of the supplier to make a claim through the post office for insurance purposes.

All of this combines to make it possible for new beekeepers to get started with healthy, chemical free bees in natural top bar hives. With careful management, we can minimize the risk and see plenty of new beekeepers starting healthy hives with healthy bees. A heartfelt thanks to the United States Postal Service for doing what they do so well!

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