# Transporting my first 3lb bee package.



## Hoot Owl Lane Bees (Feb 24, 2012)

Put them on the back seat of the sedan and drive safely.
You will get used to the buzz and any lose bees will go to the windows.


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

I have driven with bees in an enclosed vehicle, they don't always go to the windows...and you get some strange looks when driving with a bee suit on...on the upside, when you stop for lunch and go into the diner with your suit/jacket on, people want to talk to you about bees, and you get to chat with them.

I would use the truck. Put a light-colored wooden box over them, if the bed is stock the raised and lowered sections will provide ventilation, find a way to keep them from sliding around too much. Just because the upper speed limit is 70, doesn't mean you have to drive that fast. It is legal to travel slower, down to the lower limit of 45 on federal interstate highways.


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## Hops Brewster (Jun 17, 2014)

Driving with venomous insects in the car is a wreck looking for it's moment. I've seen it done, but those folks wore bee suits.

Put them in the pickup bed up front close to the cab where the wind blast is the least, and strap them down. Any loose bees will cling tenaciously to the box their queen is in. A few will fly away or be unable to catch up. If it's a cold day you can cover them. An hour under cover will do no harm. Lightly mist the box with a little water before you leave for home.


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## flyin-lowe (May 15, 2014)

I've always transported mine inside of the vehicle. Assuming you check to make sure things are secure, brush off any bees that might be on the outside of the cage and you should be fine.


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## thesecurityeagle (Jun 21, 2016)

Two packages are no issue. You can put them in the cab of the truck. I got started by picking up a hive in Spartanburg, SC when I lived in Lexington, SC. My father owned a station wagon. They rode fine. Last year, I picked up a NUC in a SUV and drove from Moravian Falls, NC to my house. My entire family was in the SUV, we did not wear a bee suit....About two hours drive. No problem.


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

I have driven with packages of bees over 3 hours in a sedan with no suit. You will likely have a few hitchhikers on the outside of the cages. They blow out of the rolled down windows within the first 10 miles. I would not put them in the trunk of a car for fear that they will overheat and be a big wet pile of dead bees when you got home. But that might not be a problem in NC like it is in AL.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

i go for bees every year for our bee group, about 5 hours one way. i have used a work van, caravan or pt cruiser. 25 to 75 packages. if your a/c works turn it on. just drive, the bees settle down 100 percent if you are moving. you will get some looks if you stop for a pit stop at mc'donalds. i have a suit and smoker and roll of duct tape with me but they are in an old milk crate. do not stop long and keep the bees cool. if you are nervous the first trip a suit is ok. i have had russian 10 frame deeps in the back of an outback for a couple of hours. i went with a neighbor once to pick up some nucs just a few miles away once, they were in those awful wet card board nuc boxes, a 10 year old got stung, his mother freaked big time, not great. do not go with a carfull and watch out for leaky nucs with grumpy bees. a few straglers loose in the car is no big deal, they will not fly while you are moving.... as far as an accident? wear your seat-belt and know ahead of time how to get out of the vehicle just like no bees in the car. you will be fine


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Last time I picked up packages (a couple of decades ago now) they offered to brush off all of the stranglers on the outside. I said to leave them. They're free bees. I usually have the packages all in the back of the minivan... I would put them in the cab and treat them like a puppy. Don't let them overheat.


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## rolftonbees (Jul 10, 2014)

I used to deliver bees all of the time as a rural mail carrier. No one worried about me having them in my car, took no measures to protect me or wipe the hitchhikers off and I was not even a beekeeper. 

Sounds like some new beeks need to get a pair .... Of mesh laundry bags to put those small... Lol ... Packages in.


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## tnmtn (May 27, 2016)

I picked up two packages last year in Traveller's Rest, about 2 hours away. I put them in the trunk, then opened the seat divider in the back seat (trunk access) a little so they wouldn't get over heated. Worked fine.


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## Groundhwg (Jan 28, 2016)

flyin-lowe said:


> I've always transported mine inside of the vehicle. Assuming you check to make sure things are secure, brush off any bees that might be on the outside of the cage and you should be fine.


This if there are no loose bees when you put the package in your car there should not be any problem. A roll of tape can come in handy if there is a hole in the package.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

i doubt you will ever see a leaky package in your lifetime. ignore the straglers. chances are they not from the package anyway. just lost curious bees.. a leaky nuc is another matter, bees are going in and out of the hive [nuc]. think about a mesh bag. and be careful. a pickup truck is always the best bet for cardboard nucs.... be careful with the duct tape, you can smother the bees.


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## adg72484 (Nov 22, 2015)

I transported my first package and nuc in the back of my tahoe. The cardboard nuc was plastic wrapped around the lid and the bees still made it out. I had probably 20-30 bees escape in the hour drive we had. I rolled down the back window and out they flew. Not an ideal situation but I made it work  The package was freshly shaken and did not leak or have any hitchhikers.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

A lot of bees have ridden in my minivans and pickup cabs. I am not a panicker and the few loose bees do not cause a problem. Now of you need a safe place, a puppy and a soft childhood blanket, put them in the box of your pickup and go if its not rainng and under 55' they won't be harmed. Stopping with them in the sun will kill them fast however.


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## rwmccor (Feb 29, 2012)

When I picked mine up last year, the guy told me to stop at the dollar store
and grab a couple of there mesh laundry bags. cheap and no bees escaped.
rode safe in the back seat.


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## GZB (Jan 29, 2013)

My father bought some packages and we drove to Georgia to pick them up. They rode home to Maine in the back of the station wagon with the four of us. That was 1976, I think. I don't think twice about driving with packages on the floor in a car.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

I prefer to bring my packages home in an enclosed vehicle. It is never more than 3. Go to Walmart and buy $3 worth of tulle from the fabric dept. Wrap the packages in it, and everyone stays happy. (I'm not bothered by the stray bee, but my husband, the driver, has fits if he hears one buzzing around in the car.


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## NCGrimbo (Dec 15, 2016)

Thanks to everyone for their suggestion!


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## jvalentour (Sep 4, 2014)

It's more exciting to put them in the back seat with the air on. Crack a window if you are frightened. 
Whatever you do DON'T put them in the trunk.


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## Jeckyll (Apr 7, 2021)

adg72484 said:


> I transported my first package and nuc in the back of my tahoe. The cardboard nuc was plastic wrapped around the lid and the bees still made it out. I had probably 20-30 bees escape in the hour drive we had. I rolled down the back window and out they flew. Not an ideal situation but I made it work  The package was freshly shaken and did not leak or have any hitchhikers.


Remind me to purchase bees somewhere way away from where you purchase.


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

I may get yelled at for responding to a dead thread again but in a half an hour I'm heading out to pickup 15 nuc's 40 miles away in a 15 year old Land Rover with questionable brakes! What could go wrong? I could make even more sportier if I brought my wife but she refused It appears someone in our relationship has to have at least some common sense.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

LarryBud said:


> ...but she refused It appears someone in our relationship has to have at least some common sense.


Someone has to be able to cash the life insurance check.


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

Ok, just an update on last nights adventure-nothing happened until this morning when all of the nucs were unloaded and set. When I started to pull the paper towels my supplier place in the entrances so the bees could see where they ended up, apparently one got bound up in the towel and stung me on the tip of my middle finger...a sign of things to come? Well, first sting of the year-got that going for me!


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