Buying bees

[pargyle]

Thankyou.
Thats a great offer.
I am gona put this down as a lesson.
The chap has contacted me and offered to refund and take the hive away.
Part my fault for not looking. The bees have starved.
On a plus note. All of my colonies are boiling over and have plenty of stores.
Phill. M .

Well ... at least the seller has offered the right thing to resolve.

In fairness, if they were low on stores at the time you collected them - and they were properly inspected as they should have been - then you would have known that they needed feeding immediately. A lack of food, for even a couple of days, will see even big colonies decimated. The dead bees and larvae are indicative of a colony that has starved. The lack of brood ? Well, it states in his advert 'Brood in all stages' although it does not state how much BIAS - again, that all important mutual inspection is vital.

You probably have £200 worth of kit that came with the bees if you have kept it - whether it is the buyers or the sellers responsibility to agree the nature of the sale is a moot point. You had the opportunity to inspect - he had the opportunity to demonstrate - there is probably fault on both sides. Caveat emptor !

I see from the advert that the seller states he has been breeding selectively for varroa resistance for 10 years - I think (And I'm treatment free) I would have been asking about what testing has been done to confirm resistant traits - it's one thing to say they are resistant - it's another thing altogether proving it. Dead bees and ejected larvae can also be a sign that the colony was overcome by varroa infestation. Check some of the cells of brood in the frames and see if there are mites in them - if there are - I would give the remaining bees a blast of OA and see what the mite drop is as well.

It's a lesson learned and a valuable thread for anyone buying bees - reputable sellers will always show the colonies - people selling a couple of spare colonies? Well, they may not ? Deliberate mis-selling does not appear to be the case in this situation but when buying bees you should always seek to ensure that what you are buying is what is advertised and what you are expecting. As you say - lesson learned - time to move on.