Hiving

We can hive your packages of bees here in our own starter yard. We started offering this service several years ago to beekeepers who were out of town or away on business during the package arrival time. You may bring your hive to our yard prior to the bees arriving as a single deep box. We will install your package, release the queen, and have the hive ready for pickup 2 weeks after hiving. As many beekeepers understand, hives should not be transported or radically disturbed for a couple of weeks after the new queen is released. It is possible to transport hives prior to this but queens are not guaranteed under this situation.

Your equipment should be in good serviceable shape and be able to be made bee tight for your return trip. Hiving with a caged queen is $20/hive. We can release the queen for $2.50/queen, and feeding is $5/week.  Unless you tell us not to, we will put pollen substitute on the bees after the queen is out.  This will add another $4 but we feel the brood build is worth it.   

Hiving time for the bees is during our delivery weeks and we are always short on time.  We use frame feeders with caps and ladders for feeding.  Other types of feeders do not work with our schedule of travel.  If you do not have frame feeders we can provide them for $16.75 each.  If the spring is cool, you should provide top insulation either of reflectix or styrofoam that is already cut and fit to go in the inner cover.

When you come to pick up your hive it is necessary that the hive be prepared for transport early in the morning to screen the bees off before they start to fly.  When you schedule your pickup day we do a final hive check for queenright, and tighten the frames so they won't rattle around during transport.  Transport preparation is $5 per hive.  If we have to recage the queen for early transport it will add another $10.  This is not usually necessary if the hive has been established for a couple of weeks.

Please provide lid, inner cover, top insulation if you want it, deep brood box with frame feeder, and bottom board with an entrance reducer.  All of this should be held together with a ratcheting cargo strap. 

Sometimes it is possible for us to transport your hive into town when we have business in there during the spring.  Our schedule is irregular but if we can save you a drive out to Big Lake we are willing to do so.  We charge $25 for one hive, $40 for two hives and $15 for each hive above that.