Pennyfold Bees
New Bee
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2013
- Messages
- 22
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Petersfield
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 2
I purchased a nuc from the largest bee equipment supplier last weekend. I had been very excited about the bees being available since I got my hives back in March and have been waiting until now to receive them. I used my GoPro video camera to record when I transferred the bees from the transport box to my 14x12 brood chamber. I didn't manage to see the queen during the transfer but could see brood at all stages so was not worried about that. I was surprised at how hard it was to remove the frames from the box and by the amount of brace comb that had been built up inside the transfer box. It was hard to remove the frames and in cutting the brace comb off to fit it in the hive, it exposed some large larvae in the cut brace comb (quality of photo isn't great as it was a screenshot from my video):
I completed the transfer, put a feeder on (which I'm amazed how much the bees get through) and I was planning to leave the bees for a week to settle in. I have a perpex cover board so I can look at my bees regularly without disturbing them (so glad I built that).
I thought that all was OK until I looked back at the video I had taken... I spotted what I thought looked like a queen cell on one of the frames. Now I'd read that queen cells were a definite "no" in a brand new nuc, so I sent the photo to an experienced beekeeping friend to ask her thoughts. She immediately forwarded my email to the local SBI who kindly came to inspect the bees on Wednesday. The SBI was great, did a very thorough inspection while I took a lot more photos. There were a number of fully formed queen cells which were torn down and some smaller ones that had been started.
SBI also observed:
- uncapped cells, indicating bald brood over the forming pupaes.
- wax moth damage on the combs
- varroa damage (cannibalism of pupae)
- the combs were very dirty, old combs
- a lot of propolis on the frame ends, which were well propolised into the travel box as well as brace comb.
With the amount of brace comb and the age of the larvae in the brace comb, I was told this indicates that the bees were in the box longer than from delivery to me opening them. So I phoned and sent a message to the company concerned and they responded quickly, accepting this nuc is not up to the usual quality that they supply. They have said it was not bred by themselves but a supplier of theirs (no quality checks!). They have offered me a 50% credit note as compensation (given the price was £240, that is £120 credit). They also asked me to monitor the bees for a week or so to see how they develop.
I am a new beekeeper, and don't fully understand what it means to start with a poor quality nucleus of bees. However I do know my rights as a consumer, and if this was any other product I'd return it and I know that I'd be entitled to a full refund. The difficulty here is that these are live insects which I already care about(!), and any problems are already in my hive now. Also I've no idea how I could possibly return them, surely more will have hatched in the last week so they wouldn't fit back in the travelling box, they were clearly already too constrained in that box.
I'd therefore like to ask the forum for feedback on what I should do next? Will £120 credit cover the cost of any additional treatments that I need and is this a fair offer? Should I insist on a new nuc being supplied? Is it possible to return the existing bees? Would you accept this offer of compensation and keep the bees?
I hope that I get some helpful feedback as I really want to start off well with my beekeeping adventure (there has been too much 'adventure' in the first week!)
Thank you in advance and here are a few of the photos.
Queen cell in corner of frame:
Opening the same queen cell:
Dirty old comb:
I completed the transfer, put a feeder on (which I'm amazed how much the bees get through) and I was planning to leave the bees for a week to settle in. I have a perpex cover board so I can look at my bees regularly without disturbing them (so glad I built that).
I thought that all was OK until I looked back at the video I had taken... I spotted what I thought looked like a queen cell on one of the frames. Now I'd read that queen cells were a definite "no" in a brand new nuc, so I sent the photo to an experienced beekeeping friend to ask her thoughts. She immediately forwarded my email to the local SBI who kindly came to inspect the bees on Wednesday. The SBI was great, did a very thorough inspection while I took a lot more photos. There were a number of fully formed queen cells which were torn down and some smaller ones that had been started.
SBI also observed:
- uncapped cells, indicating bald brood over the forming pupaes.
- wax moth damage on the combs
- varroa damage (cannibalism of pupae)
- the combs were very dirty, old combs
- a lot of propolis on the frame ends, which were well propolised into the travel box as well as brace comb.
With the amount of brace comb and the age of the larvae in the brace comb, I was told this indicates that the bees were in the box longer than from delivery to me opening them. So I phoned and sent a message to the company concerned and they responded quickly, accepting this nuc is not up to the usual quality that they supply. They have said it was not bred by themselves but a supplier of theirs (no quality checks!). They have offered me a 50% credit note as compensation (given the price was £240, that is £120 credit). They also asked me to monitor the bees for a week or so to see how they develop.
I am a new beekeeper, and don't fully understand what it means to start with a poor quality nucleus of bees. However I do know my rights as a consumer, and if this was any other product I'd return it and I know that I'd be entitled to a full refund. The difficulty here is that these are live insects which I already care about(!), and any problems are already in my hive now. Also I've no idea how I could possibly return them, surely more will have hatched in the last week so they wouldn't fit back in the travelling box, they were clearly already too constrained in that box.
I'd therefore like to ask the forum for feedback on what I should do next? Will £120 credit cover the cost of any additional treatments that I need and is this a fair offer? Should I insist on a new nuc being supplied? Is it possible to return the existing bees? Would you accept this offer of compensation and keep the bees?
I hope that I get some helpful feedback as I really want to start off well with my beekeeping adventure (there has been too much 'adventure' in the first week!)
Thank you in advance and here are a few of the photos.
Queen cell in corner of frame:
Opening the same queen cell:
Dirty old comb: