Package Bees Terms & Conditions

Package Bee Health

Purchasing package bees is one of several ways to obtain your bees.  Understanding the overall process of the package bee industry will give you a clearer understanding of what to expect and how to manage your bees upon receiving them.  The apiaries from which they come are state inspected for disease and overall bee health.  The primary purpose of these inspections is to ensure the health of the honeybee in North America.  However, these inspections also serve the purpose of providing a disease-free and healthy honeybee package to you.

The process of packaging, queen introduction and hive introduction is not nature’s design.  Thus sometimes, bee packages do not thrive as the beekeeper would hope for.  This can be due in part to the mating and acceptance of the queen, weather conditions and beekeeper error.  Osage Farms provides the package bees from the apiary to you. 

Because beekeeping is a hobby that requires skill, scientific understanding, and technique, we cannot guarantee the success or failure of bee packages once they leave our facility.  Each beekeeper understands that it is their responsibility to learn skills, techniques, and knowledge.    

The weight of each package is approx. +/- 3 lbs.  Osage Farms strives to ensure each package is 3 lbs. but can be overweight or underweight due to many factors out of our control.

When weather allows, Osage Farms checks every queen in the cage before they are handed out.  In the event, you see a dead queen in the package, we ask that you place the queen cage in the hive, as the cage has pheromones which will keep the bees from swarming.  After 5 days check your hive for eggs.  At times, a queen will be shook into the package by accident.  If there are still no eggs, please call or email so we can help resolve the issue. 

Package Bee Pick Up Dates

Osage Farms makes every attempt to have your bees ready for pickup on the scheduled date; however, due to factors that are outside of our control, including bad weather, we may need to rearrange scheduled dates. These dates will be listed on our website as soon as we know them if this does happen, and an email and or text will also be sent to every customer who has placed an order. 

You agree to pick up your bees on the date you chose during the ordering process. The exact time of package bee pick up is not announced until the day before your chosen pick up date.  Once we know the timeframe, we will contact you via email or text message.  Your package bee order must be picked up on the scheduled arrival date.  Osage Farms is not able to hold package bees for multiple days – they are live creatures and require care.

Ordering / Cancellations / Changes

Our bee shipment schedule for each season is normally “Sold Out” months in advance.  We ask that you carefully consider late winter storms for your area before choosing a ship date.  Weather under 40 degrees at night can have a very negative effect on your bee colony including a complete “die-off” of the colony.  No deposits or partial payments will be taken.  Orders must be paid in full upon placement – NO cash on delivery. 

We normally are 100% sold out for the season which leaves little to no availability to move your bee shipment.  Bee pick up change orders requested within two weeks of the ship date will not be changed.  There will be a $25 cancellation fee for any bee orders cancelled within 2 weeks of the pick-up date.

Waitlist for package bees – there is no waitlist kept by Osage Farms.  As we get closer to pick up dates, we occasionally are able to get more package bees.  If and when, we get more package bees – we immediately put them available for sale on our website.  HINT: You can get a notification when they come back in stock on our website!

 

There is potential risk of injury from activities involved in beekeeping, and while particular rules, equipment and personal care may reduce the risk, the risk of injury does exist; and YOU KNOWINGLY AND FREELY ASSUME ALL SUCH RISKS, both known and unknown, EVEN IF ARISING FROM NEGLIGENCE OF THE RELEASEES or others, and assume full responsibility for your participation; and, HEREBY RELEASE AND HOLD HARMLESS OSAGE APIARIES, LLC (OSAGE FARMS), their officers, other participants, and if applicable, owner and lessors of the premises ("RELEASEES") used to conduct any event, WITH RESPECT TO ANY AND ALL INJURY, DISABILITY, DEATH, or loss or damage to person or property, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, WHETHER ARISING FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OF THE RELEASED OR OTHERWISE.