A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from a beekeeping friend. She works at one of the big delivery companies and everyone there knows she is a long time beekeeper. The company had called her because they were delivering packages of bees, one of the packages was damaged, and bees were everywhere. The delivery service was willing to let insurance handle the loss and did she want the rest of the packages? She offered me and another couple as many as we could take. She only had enough equipment for a handful of the packages. I took two and the other couple took the rest.
By the time she got those packages to me, late at night, the feeder cans were bone dry. I sprayed the package with sugar water so they would make it through the night. The amount of dead bees in the bottom wasn't bad but they wouldn't have lasted long. I'm happy to report both are doing well now. Eggs and larvae spotted in both.
