Hi Baker, when you say 'by the time you got them' how far did the Sask package/queen have to travel to get to you?
Sorry about not being clear. A friend of mine who works for one of the large delivery companies called me. Mann Lake was shipping packages by this company and one of the packages on a pallet had been damaged and bees were flying everywhere. They contacted her to take them off her hands and they would let insurance settle the loss. It wasn't clear how long the bees had been sitting on a dock somewhere but the packages were light as a feather because the feeder cans were empty or almost empty. I said I would take two, because I didn't have that much woodenware setting around empty. She didn't realize at the time that each package was labeled with the breed of bees. It was dark by the time she got to my house. I had sugar water ready and misted them down as a food source for the night.
My friend called me a day or two later to say that the breed of bees was labeled on each package and that some were Saskatraz. Luckily, because I was lazy, I was able to retrace my steps and determine which hive contained the Saskatraz. The other package was Carnolians.
It was a close call for that pallet. Another couple took 30 packages, I took two, and my friend ended up with a couple of them too. She didn't have the woodenware available either.