# No bee shortage this year.



## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

I up my order this year for packages, because in years past you can only get so many. This year my supplies was hopeing that I would have bought more. Just had another supplier looking to move 1000 extra. Two week ago I had a new supplies call and ask if there was a demand in my area for a load of package to be sold. Maybe more plays in the game this year, or just a good bee spring.
Are others seeing this or is other having problems getting there bees.

This years bees are all in and going even with all the cold weather. Feed has been moving fast out of the warehouse.:thumbsup::lookout:


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Rumor has it bees are in short supply in Wisconsin. We ordered early, so no problems, but the johny come latelys may be up a creek.

I will try to confirm and report back.

Crazy Roland


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## Brian Suchan (Apr 6, 2005)

Roland said:


> Rumor has it bees are in short supply in Wisconsin. We ordered early, so no problems, but the johny come latelys may be up a creek.
> 
> I will try to confirm and report back.
> 
> Crazy Roland


What is a average winter loss up there?


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## Brian Suchan (Apr 6, 2005)

Not for the johny latelys but for the seasoned beeks??


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Buy all you can and go into share crop with all the people who bounce out of East texas into the Dakotas. The way the rain has been in that area there has to be a coming shortage of bees due to late or no splits followed by poor mating.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

The Honey Householder said:


> I up my order this year for packages, because in years past you can only get so many. This year my supplies was hopeing that I would have bought more. Just had another supplier looking to move 1000 extra. Two week ago I had a new supplies call and ask if there was a demand in my area for a load of package to be sold. Maybe more plays in the game this year, or just a good bee spring.
> Are others seeing this or is other having problems getting there bees.
> 
> This years bees are all in and going even with all the cold weather. Feed has been moving fast out of the warehouse.:thumbsup::lookout:


Its top notch bee making weather in Ga this spring. I could see an excess. Actually i have been getting calls left and right about packages from suppliers too.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Country is flush with bees up on the Canadian prairies this spring. I had a guy looking to buy hives from me but balk at my price. Nucs selling for less than packages this spring.
NZ packages up to $200 2lbs, Ontario sourced packages $175... Local 3 frame nucs $150-185.


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

I didn't think I was going to get all the packages that I had order, because I upped my order and so when I did. It set me into bee box building mode. Crazy having more bees then you have equipment ready. Having the boys pull a skid of new frames out of the warehouse before splitting season is not normal. Now waiting on 6 skids of new frames that I didn't think I would need for another month. Dad order an extra load of syrup last fall and it was a good thing he did. Most years we only use one load, but we are already into our second load. Hives are taking 1-2 gallon a week right now and growing fast. Going to be a good bee year, and hoping honey too.

Might have to sell some more nucs and singles off in late May.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

If the bees advertised out of almonds cheap are any good, I can't understand how prices on the western part of the country have held up as well as they have! Still lots of beginners jumping in here and supporting prices I imagine.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

After my last response I think a more appropriate answer would be that the current supply chain is not short on the production side but on the distribution side. After our first week of shipping on UPS all our ship package pre order spots were gobbled up fro the entire season. (As a side note I might add that we might add some for the last week of April once everything else we have committed to do is done.) 

In the meanwhile I happen to have an ever increasing list of people throughout the country that still want us to ship them bees. Many emails written in a desperate tone might I add. The list is long enough that it would require us to ramp up the production almost two fold for the entire year to satisfy everyone on the list. This will not be happening as the time still available is way to short. Calls and emails from every state in the union practically. 

Obviously not all people have access to bees near them if this is the case. There might be enough bees in aggregate but to say all the ones that are wanted are in a logistics position that will work to satisfy the current demand would be a little bit of a stretch to even dare to claim.


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

I thinks there is some new players in the game this year and just thought that package buyer would come find them. Supplier need dealers to move the packages. I don't know of any big suppliers that sell a large % of 1's and 2's. You have your dealers that you wholesale off loads to move the bees. I think good supply chain is always important in business. Sometimes it takes years to get everything going in the right direction. Thats why starting small and growing into everything is the best for business. 

In honey production we retail 10% of our crop and wholesale the rest off (barrels, skids of buckets, skid of bottled honey) with dealers. Which that has come from years and years of find those wholesale dealers to do business with. Before that the packers always called each year to see how many loads we had to sell and what they would give us for our honey.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Brian- Can't answer that, we are not real social. Maybe JohnK and Sheri can chime in.

Things looked OK until the brutal February arrived. 

Crazy Roland


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