I just called UPS to see what was all involved on my end for shipping queens to get ready for shipping them and I was informed they dont ship honeybees any more. I asked if this was something that happened recently and she said yes, Someone please tell me this is bull$$$$
Ship USPS.
I want to ship with whoever works best. I am told it is better to use UPS for one thing but I will find out I guess.
UPS quit shipping bees a while back. USPS is the only bee shipper out there that I know of. They also ship live animals and chicks.
Yea i have been getting bees thru USPS for years but now i see when people send bees priority mail you are to get them in two days this has not been the thing here in Virginia. I have had queens that were ordered and shipped on Monday i don't get them until friday or saturday if i'm lucky it seems they all are getting kind of messy. I do not know about Fed-ex they may take up the slck that UPS do not do now.
Thomas
I received two pkgs three weeks ago and queens two weeks ago from UPS.
Done some homework. UPS on their site says they ship bees (which I thought they stopped). A few bee producers were shipping next day UPS. Which is faster than USPS. I guess the only way to know for sure is to ask at the UPS store or drop center.
I checked out the shipping on a 3 pound package from Cali to here in GA. Next day UPS cost more shipping than the package itself. I just wanted to know. But that is better than getting week old bees.
I got 25 queens from new york a couple weeks ago by UPS, good thing USPS sucks
http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/packaging/guidelines/animals.html?srch_pos=1&srch_phr=live+animals (http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/packaging/guidelines/animals.html?srch_pos=1&srch_phr=live+animals)
http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/packaging/guidelines/animals.html?srch_pos=1&srch_phr=live+animals#Accepted+%2F+Prohibited+Live+Animals (http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/packaging/guidelines/animals.html?srch_pos=1&srch_phr=live+animals#Accepted+%2F+Prohibited+Live+Animals)
Bee Nuts, I discovered why they're not shipping bees anymore!
(http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j365/MichiganBee/Honey%20Bees/NoMailTodayMay11.jpg)
This was hilarious. By the way, USPS would NOT put mail in this mail box today! Notice the flag is UP. I guess rain, wind, sleet and hail are OK, but they won't work through bees :)
I happened to be driving through town looking at some real estate when 3 houses down I saw this swarm on a mailbox. I got to talking with the homeowners and they were just the nicest people you could meet. They've had bees in this tree for 4 years.
(http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j365/MichiganBee/Honey%20Bees/MercerTreeHive.jpg)
It sounds like they have swarmed 3 times this week. I caught two of those swarms today. They weren't big swarms but I did catch the queens :) That's what I really wanted; the survivor genetics. Making it through 4 Michigan winters without treatment in a tree is impressive. The bees were a mix of light and darker colored bees. Looked like Italian and Carni mix to me.
The second swarm was up in an Acer Pseudoplatanus Atropurpuruem (I believe) tree. I like those trees; green on top and purple under the leaf. They look nice all summer as long as we don't get baking hot weather. Nice fat queen in this swarm.
(http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j365/MichiganBee/Honey%20Bees/MercerSurvivorSwarmMay11.jpg)
I've now caught 14 swarms so far this spring..... I'm starting to worry......I might have an addiction?
I would like to choke the lady from UPS that told me they dont ship honeybees any more. She must have been one of those lazy ones who was not prepared to get off her big fat $$$ and find out what the deal really was.
>She must have been one of those lazy ones...
I got the same response when I contacted the local UPS a few years ago even though I got bees shipped to me UPS and their web site says they do.
"UPS stores" are franchised like businesses. The owner of the individual UPS store has great leeway in determining if something is acepted or considered a saftey issue. The owner of my local "UPS store" will not ship bees, even though I get bees delivered UPS all the time from other locations. The only real alternative is to drive them to the local UPS hub which has a customer counter, making the time and travel way too expensive for mailing a couple queens.
That makes sense.
I was not talking to the store, the store gave me the 800 number which I called and was on hold for at least five minutes and was told, "sorry sir, we do not ship bees". I asked, "really, is this a recent thing", and she said "yes".
She was a lazy bum who did not want to get off her but and look through their rules and such for the real answer but gave me the easy one, NO!
I called a store the other day to ask about 1/8 inch hardware cloth and I said if you dont have it can you check to see if you can order it. He came back and said no we dont and I would almost have to say no we cant get it either if we dont have it. I just said ok instead of asking the bum to look it up cause I know the can order it like most any other hardware joint.
>The only real alternative is to drive them to the local UPS hub which has a customer counter, making the time and travel way too expensive for mailing a couple queens.
I was calling the main number for UPS, not the local UPS store. I also asked at the local hub.
I actually have both a store and a hub that are both not to far out of my way to work every afternoon so I am in luck that way. I will be shipping queens in less than a month so I hope things go well. Some are in state some are across the country. At least I am sort of in the middle of the country so I will never have to ship queens from one coast to the other just half way across the country, lol!