# Queens lost in the mail. Does any carrier pay Full Reimbursement?



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

I have never made a USPS Insurance claim, but see this "Payable Claims" page:



Payable Claims



and the section near the bottom that says:


> Cost of bees, crickets, or baby poultry or birds destroyed by_ physical damage_ to the package or delay for which the Postal Service is responsible.


USPS has lots of hoops for you to jump through, but insurance should pay if the hoops were jumped correctly.


As far as UPS goes, this sentence is key:



> Any package containing a live animal shall be considered a perishable commodity and will be accepted for transportation solely at the shipper´s risk for any damage or loss arising from the perishable nature of the item. UPS shall not be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


So one could expect UPS to reimburse shipping charges (in a delivery failure), but not the cost of the bees.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

I'm happy to report the queens finally made it into my hands, many days late. Only 1 queen was dead. The post office said they were only responsible to reimburse the shipper the cost of the postage because it was late. Now to see if M.P. actually does that or just lets it go.


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

ruthiesbees said:


> I'm happy to report the queens finally made it into my hands, many days late. Only 1 queen was dead. The post office said they were only responsible to reimburse the shipper the cost of the postage because it was late. Now to see if M.P. actually does that or just lets it go.


glad the queens finally showed up
hope they work out.

I would consider shipping 1/3 and a week later 1/3 and a week later 1/3
seems the first shipment breaks the trail, and then the rest come thru better, as well all the eggs are not in one truck.
I only have queens shipped if that seems the only option, been in your shoes too many times.

as well think of the time energy and expectation you have for these queens and maybe they over heated, or got too dry.
for me the 40 bucks was the least important, the performance won the game. especially if these are breeders.

GG


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

I just saw a comment where the queens have been in shipment *one month*.
ALL survived.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

GregB said:


> I just saw a comment where the queens have been in shipment *one month*.
> ALL survived.


wow! curious how they were packaged. Mine were in Benton cages with workers but no wet sponge like you normally see when nurse bees are added to the outsides of the california cages with queens. No way these were going to make it for too many more days unless they received some natural rain water somehow.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

ruthiesbees said:


> wow! curious how they were packaged. Mine were in Benton cages with workers but no wet sponge like you normally see when nurse bees are added to the outsides of the california cages with queens. No way these were going to make it for too many more days unless they received some natural rain water somehow.


In the "one month" case - I suspect they were prepped specially for a long trip.
Most likely international shipment.
I did not look for exact details, but long shipments are pretty common.

But in the internal US shipment with standard prep (cage with sugar plug) - up to one week should be just fine.
3-4 days are not a big deal at all.
Certainly, some water provision for the bees never hurts.

The real issue is not how long - but rather if the queen has not been baked somewhere.


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## Marcin (Jun 15, 2011)

Few years back I ordered 5 NWC queens from a breeder in California. Tracking showed my house as the destination, but somehow the queens ended up in Germany ( according to tracking scans ) before they all finally made it to me. The whole shipping took about 5 days, and all of the queens were alive. I used all of them, but 2 were superseded as soon as they started laying. The other 3 survived the winter.


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