package day

Live Bees Pickup Email Update

We are already sending emails to all beekeepers that ordered packages or nucs. If you ordered bees, please check your email and make sure you get these updates regarding pickup date. Later we will send more updates and information as we get closer to bee day.

In this link, you can see the email update content: https://mailchi.mp/53c8d07db81a/package-bee-bee-day-date-confirmation-13617385

Below we transcribe some of the updated content.

Everything is looking good for a pickup date of Sunday, April 24.

The queens are mating with good weather in CA and at this time the suppliers don’t anticipate any production issues or delays.

For pickup, we recommend that you do not bring anyone that is afraid of bees. While the bees are enclosed in their box, there will be bees flying around.

We’d recommend transporting the packages at “room temperature” and most beekeepers will transport packages with them inside the vehicle to avoid overheating or too much airflow.

If you are getting nucs this year, we’d recommend transporting the nucs secured on the back of a pickup truck with plenty of ventilation. They need air circulation to be able to cool off the colony

If you bring the bees inside the vehicle, we will do our best to brush off any bees on the outside of the box and you can transport them with the AC on to avoid overheating.

You could also set the box inside a mesh that provides ventilation while keeping the bees contained. You can bring your mesh or we also have them available at the BeeManiacs store.

2017 BeeManiacs Bee Day

We are going to host the first BeeManiacs Bee Day on April 15, 2017.

This will be a very interesting event for beekeepers, with many activities and vendors available that day. That’s the day packages and nucs will be available to be picked up for beekeepers that pre-ordered them at http://livebees.beemaniacs.com/

If you want to buy or sell equipment or tools, we will be hosting a Beekeeping Equipment Swap.

Vendors can participate for free!

To keep the information centralized we have created a new page on our website. Please find more information at this link: https://beemaniacs.com/beemaniacs-bee-day/

BeeManiacs Package Day

Last Saturday we distributed the BeeManiacs packages for the 2016 season.

We had package installation demonstrations in top bar and Langstroth hives (Western and Deep boxes). We presented different ways to install packages: without shaking or shaking the bees, and students evaluated which way would work better for them.

It was a fun-filled day, with lots of families with kids sharing the excitement for the bees arriving into their lives.

Package day 2016

This season we run out of live bees very early, so we enlisted the help of Will Olson, a local beekeeper, to bring more honey bee packages to our area.
Will’s package day at BeeManiacs was on April 9th, on a nice and sunny day.

Tomorrow, April 16th, we will have our own package day at BeeManiacs. If you ordered bees from us, you received an email with detailed information that we’re going to repeat in this post.

If for any reason you cannot make it to pick up your live bees, please contact us at livebees@beemaniacs.com so we can coordinate with you.

We will have package installation demonstrations in Langstroth and top bar hives at 1:30 pm. Please note that the hands-on activities are optional and you are required to have and wear your protective gear (veil or jacket) and sign a liability release form. Demonstrations are free, with the only requirements of wearing the protective equipment and signing the liability release form.

This Saturday we will open the store from 8 am to 5 pm. Package pickup time is from noon to 5 pm. If you are buying material from the store, we recommend you to arrive earlier. If you are only picking up bees, we streamlined the process so you can get in and out with your bees ready to go home.

1- Start at the main store building with Maria. She will have a printout of your invoice with package release voucher/s.

2- Bring the voucher to Ari Jr at the pickup tent in the parking lot and he will give you your package/s.

If you are in the waiting list, we recommend you to come to our store around 4:30 pm, so you could get a package from any cancellations we received during the day.

Live Bees 2016

We just published a page to place your package or queen honey bee order for the 2016 season.

You can pre-order in this page, while supplies last: https://beemaniacs.com/live-bees/
(with credit card or PayPal)

Remember that if you order a 3 lbs package of bees, it includes the worker bees (about 10,500 bees) and one queen bee in its cage. The package also includes a can of syrup to keep the bees hydrated and fed during their trip to your bee yard. If you want to setup a beehive, you just need a package without having to order an extra queen.

This year, if you bring the empty package box to us by July 2, 2016, we will give you $10 per box of in-store purchases credit.

If you want to order 5 or 10 or more packages, pay attention to our quantity pricing (drop down menu in the ordering page). We have a good price for the single package, but once you add the quantity discount or the store credit for returning the empty box, it becomes a really good deal.

Also, for beekeepers making nucs, splitting their hives or just having to re-queen early in the season, we bring queen bees. This is the only day in the year we bring queen bees and by pre-order only. Later in the season we recommend you to make your own queens. A survivor stock queen you breed from your best queen will be better than any queen we can bring from California or any other warmer state.

The current estimated delivery date is April 16. Once you place an order we will keep you updated on any date change over email.

If you never installed a package before, we will have demonstrations on how to install packages in different kinds of hives that day. We will set a 2-acre parking area so you can park, attend the demonstration, pick up your package and go home to do the same thing in your hive (you can see some pictures from 2015 setup below).

You can place the order online right now. Our walk-in store opens February 13 for the season and from that day on, you could order your bees in person at the store (but we don’t recommend waiting until then because we have limited supplies of live bees).

2015 Package Day

This was the first year that we sold live bees at our BeeManiacs store. We thought we would only sell 20 packages in our first year, but ended up selling more than 100 packages.

Weather was less than desirable for installing packages. Sunny at times, but with rain, hail and snow at other times. Wind was the only constant, blowing at about 20 to 30 mph.

We had package installation demonstrations so new beekeepers could see first-hand how to install their packages at home. Experienced beekeepers Jack Miller and Sandy Fanara volunteered to mentor the new beekeepers. They both explained how to install a package under normal weather conditions and under the current conditions at the time. Packages were installed in Langstroth, Top Bar and Warré hives.

Parking space was sufficient and we were able to house everybody indoors. Snacks and hot coffee were provided while waiting for the demonstrations.

Based on this years experience, we are already planning improvements and new things that we will be bringing in for the 2016 package day (we will release more details on January 2016).

Live Bees Pick up Information

Pick up is Saturday, April 11, from noon until 5:00 pm. Store will be open that day from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

If for any reason you cannot make it to pick up your live bees, please contact us at livebees@beemaniacs.com so we can coordinate with you.

If you would like to see some demonstration on how to install packages, we setup two demonstration times: 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm.

At 1:00 pm top bar experts, Jack and Ellen Miller, will install packages in a couple of top bar hives. We will be also installing a package in a Langstroth hive (volunteer to be determined :-).

At 2:00 pm we will be installing packages in one top bar, one Warré and one Langstroth hive.

If you are coming for any of the demonstrations, please bring protective gear.

Since we could have up to 40-50 vehicles show up at the same time, we are changing our access and parking area for Saturday. There will be only one entrance open and plenty of parking and maneuvering space in the grass area to the right of the store.

We still have some Carniolan packages available for sale. Queens and Italian packages are sold out, but if you would like to order some, we are starting a waiting list: just email us atlivebees@beemaniacs.com.

If you have any questions about the schedule, please let us know. For questions about how to install packages we will have time to go over that in person on Saturday with BeeManiacs staff and some experienced beekeepers that will be around.

See you Saturday!

Package bees and queens for 2015 season

We are excited about selling package bees and queens to local beekeepers for the first time this year. We are bringing live bees only to our store and won’t be able to ship bees nationwide, as we do with other products.

We will be bringing Carniolan and Italian packages and queens.

The current estimated release date is Saturday, April 11. All live bees will be available for pickup on this date (depending on weather in California).

Queens are selling for $35 each, including Sales Tax. This year we will only have queens available for April 11 pickup (we won’t carry queens during the rest of the season).

Three pound package bees are selling for $120 each, including sales tax (it’s $111.01 plus 8.1% sales tax). Each package purchase includes a $8 in-store credit that you can collect if you bring the empty package box back to us before July 31.

You can pre-order online right now. We have limited quantities and sales are tracked online on first-come, first-served basis. This is the link to the store:

http://shopbeemaniacs.com/live-bees/

We developed over time some presentations and web-pages on how to install a package of honeybees (you can find that information in our LernBee section). This year we are making a video.

We just installed 4 packages and took raw video of the process as well as a whole lot more pictures to keep improving our presentations.

Hopefully we generated enough raw material that can be edited into an educational video that we can use in future beekeeping classes.

Package Day

It’s the time of year again, when you check your hives after winter and you realize that you may be need some new packages for your bee yard or……. if you are a new beekeeper you will need a bee package to start your first beehive.

If the latter is your case, maybe you are wondering what a “package day” is all about.

Well, we can help you here showing a few pictures of our experience in this matter. By clicking in each image, it will enlarge.

We hope that they illustrate well and give you an idea of how to start.

Enjoy!