OUR LIVE ARRIVAL GUARANTEE/HONEYBEE SHIPMENT POLICIES & TERMS FOR USE:
In General;
- All live shipments come with carrier-provided insurance. In the case your order is DOA(Dead on Arrival), a full refund will be issued.
- All orders are shipped Mondays and Tuesdays. We do not ship outside of those days, in order to minimize risk of unnecessary transport stalling at the post office on off days, such as Sundays. The less time bees are in transit, the better shape they will arrive to your door.
- Live Queen orders of 5 or less queens will be shipped in an flat-rate box for Priority Mail, or a Priority Express Envelope with individual attendants inside the cage, depending on shipping method selected. Attendants will be of mixed ages, so do not be alarmed if a few to die, as they may be at their last days of life. However, queens will be shipped with no less than 6 attendants per cage, in order to provide enough food & warmth. For orders of more than 5 Queens, we ship queens in either a Priority Mail box, or a Priority Mail Express box with loose attendants, queen candy fortified with a protein mix, and a sponge with water to keep your bees well hydrated during the trip.
- 3 Frame Nuc boxes are shipped in 5-frame plastic boxes via USPS Ground shipping, with a cut-out wooden bar on each ledge to make space between each frame, so the bees can stay cool during transit. Our 3-frame nucs come with 2 frames of capped or freshly-hatched brood & 1 with honey, bee bread & pollen, depending on the season. Additionally, we also supply extra syrup for the trip, in the case it takes too long for the bees to arrive. Upon receiving, it is recommended that you immediately transfer the colony into a 5-frame nuc or full langstroth hive and feed pollen patties and syrup for the first week, to support the increase of food demand from newly hatched nurse bees and stimulate wax building. Our honeybees take easiest and work fastest with wired foundation-less frames. Please consider using plastic-free, wired-in frames for best results. Wax strips are not necessary, as my bees are also selected for neat wax building pattern & ability.
PLEASE NOTE: As the bees will be in transit for nearly a week, you must understand there may be a considerable amount of dead bees on the bottom of the box- do not be alarmed, as this is normal, and bees will die on the daily as they complete their life cycle. Due to this fact, we do not offer refunds on nucs that have less than 2" of dead bees. As the dead bees have nowhere to go before they die, they will inevitably settle at the bottom of the box.
- Unfortunately, at this time, we DO NOT ship to Hawaii or Alaska, and only ship Live queens to Puerto Rico. We do not ship Nucs under any circumstances to any of the said states.
- We do not reimburse in cases a buyer neglects, misses a delivery, or rejects a package that is scheduled to be delivered. It is your responsibility as a buyer to be available on the date your queen is shipped. Please make sure someone will be home to receive your queens. We recommend you contact your local Post Office and let them know you are expecting queens or honeybees, and pick up from your local post office instead.
1. Live Queen Bees: We do our best to make sure the post office is aware they are transporting a fragile product, by marking the boxes in which we ship our queens with many easy-to-read bold, red stickers, and include plenty of ventilation holes to allow the bees to breathe.
- At this time, we cannot offer refunds on queens. We can, however, offer replacements for live queens as long as a claim has been submitted within 24 hours of delivery. All of our products are subject to availability at this time, as we are a small startup business and have not acquired the resources to fulfill requests on demand. In the case the product is unavailable for more than 2 months past the scheduled date, a refund will be issued instead.
- Live Arrival Guarantee/DOA: We will re-ship queens that arrive DOA. We guarantee queens will be shipped in excellent condition, and will be vigorous & healthy. The exception can be when the queen dies during transit, as there are factors during shipment that we cannot control.
- Failure to submit a ticket past 24 hours will result in the assumption the product or livestock was damaged post-shipment. Please submit requests in a timely manner, or the guarantee will be voided.
2. Nucs & Packages: Nucs & Packages are subject to either a replacement or a full refund. If there is more than 2 inches of dead bees, a replacement(when available) or partial refund(if replacement is denied) will be honored. Depending on the severity of the loss, a partial or full refund will be in order.
Any and all images for your claim must be uploaded within 24 hours of delivery. Failure to do so will forfeit any guarantees.
- We DO NOT refund orders that have been rejected/neglected after a delivery attempt. You must receive the package no matter what condition it is in, in order for us to file a seamless claim with the carrier
- If a nuc/package order is cancelled 30 days before your order ships/is picked up, a $30.00 fee for nuc & package orders will apply and be deducted from your refund.
- Please note: If you attempt to cancel your shipped Honeybee order within 7 days of your scheduled ship/pickup date, a refund will NOT be issued.
- We will only re-ship products to the original address on file.
If you mistakenly input the wrong address upon ordering, simply request to change the address through the same e-mail used upon placing it.
3. Order Cancellations:
- If a Nuc/package order is cancelled within 30 days of the scheduled ship or pickup date. : A 50% purchase price fee will apply for Package Bee or Nuc order cancellation. Our resources are limited, and we prepare orders on a first-come, first-served basis. Due to this, we prepare for each individual order, and in the case an order cannot be completed, we have had already invested in materials to set up your order. Live bees are not guaranteed to sell, which is why they are sold on a pre-order basis.
- If a Queen order is cancelled, a $10.00 fee will be incurred, and will be deducted from your refund amount. The reason is the same as above. Furthermore, we practice an expiry on banked honeybee queens to guarantee quality, so we do not sell queens that have been banked for more than 1 week. They are raised to be sent out as soon as she is a proven layer.
4. Order modifications:
- Currently, we offer complementary changes made to your order, up to 2 times per order, as long as the replacing product is of the same value. Please e-mail or text your changes with your order number.
- At this time, we cannot deduct the difference due to website limitations. If the product is more, unfortunately, you will have to cancel and re-place the order.
- We cannot fulfill an order for the same date of the original order if the item is not available for the same date initially selected.
DISCLAIMER:
Our Refunds & Exchange Policies are still a work in progress.
Please allow minor room for error in the way we handle claims.
We strive to ensure a satisfactory customer service experience when issues out of our control arise.
WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ISSUES THAT ARISE DURING SHIPMENT THAT HAVE TO DO WITH STATE REGULATIONS. I SHIP THE NUCLEUS COLONY ASSUMING THE BUYER IS AWARE OF ANY STATUTORY OR REGULATORY RESTRICTIONS IN REGARDS TO THE RECEIVAL OF SHIPMENT OF LIVE BEES FROM OTHER STATES. BY PURCHASING ANY OF OUR LISTED PRODUCTS, YOU ACKNOWLEDGETO THIS AND CERTIFY THAT YOU HAVE DONE YOUR DUE RESEARCH TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN RECEIVE YOUR PACKAGE. ALL NUC BOXES COME CERTIFIED WITH A CERTIFICATE OF HEALTH FROM THE FDACS.
Unfortunately, due to me being the only person processing orders and shipments and having a high volume of requests, I cannot fulfill the buyer's responsibility for making sure queens and nuc boxes can be imported into their desired state. Once I have more help, I will research the states in which nucs/queen bees cannot be shipped to.
Please submit any claims via our claim form located here.
Resolutions to issues are usually offered within 48-72 hours.