The last queens bees of the season shipped out yesterday. With luck USPS will deliver them on time this Friday. It’s hard to belive the season is already over, but it’s now time to start combining nucs and get hives in shape for winter.
I want to thank all of our customers, especially the patients and understanding of those that waited for queens early in the season. It seems everything that could go wrong this season did, begining with a late buildup of drones in spring that started things nearly 10 days behind schedule to a 3 week cold snap in May resulting in poorly mated or unmated queens (drone layers) that couldn’t be shipped. Fortunately I did eventually get back on schedule, though at the expense of not doing any of my own requeening in May and June as I had planned.  USPS caused some headaches as well with more packages delayed than in the past. I even had several Express mail packages (1-2 day) take 5 days or more to arrive at their destination just 2 states away. I had more problem packages this year than in the last 3 combined. I think others have seen the same problems as quite a few wanted UPS shipping, somthing I always offered, but never had to use until this year. Hopefully USPS will shape up next year as UPS next day air is nice, but it is much more expensive than Priority or Express mail.
I am already begining to be contacted for 2007 queens but for now they are just put on a list to contact as I officially don’t begin to take orders until January 1st.  Looks like next year promises to be a busy season, if we can beat the weather.
