imported queens in packages and bigots

[mikethebee]

thank you all for your post.
when i have a little more time i shall answer your post.
all the best mike

 

[Wendy122]

And you will tell us you have altered your website to make it clear what people are purchasing.

Hence your delay in responding

Well Done You could be an example for us all to follow.

W

 

[mikethebee]

Bcrazy Your imported queens have a certain genetic makeup. Their offspring will have these allele's to pass on in the form of drones, so its no wonder beekeepers that try to breed certain qualities in their bees have got two hopes. Bob Hope and No Hope with these imports.
I been telling you raising queen in the UK are not good enough, that?s why I sold all queen rearing equipment, last lot went on the fire remember?
Please tell me you have not received any orders from Cambridgeshire.
Sorry 14 custumers SO FAR(CB post codes for Cambridgeshire)I find his manner highly ignorant towards beekeepers in general and see no reason for this type of behaviour. I agree with you!
POLY HIVE THANK YOU

GAVIN If you read the discussion on another forum you'll see complaints of being misled about the origin of the bees and complaints of arbitrary deductions when he can't deliver and complaints of the quality of his product. On top of all that he is very rude.
Gavin I gave up taking notice of the BBKA forum ages ago!

Rude to you yes! YOU deliberately twisted out of all proportion my reply to a customer that had ordered a nucleus from me the year before.and wanted 2 nucs delivered in APRIL read again --- forum your order BEES 1st page

Copy
Hi Mike I purchased a nucleus off you last year if you remember I was the guy in the Scottish Highlands.
Sadly last week I suffered the loss of the hive as discussed in the loss of hive forum.
Your web site states that collection only is possible until June is there anyway that I may persuade you to ship earlier possible two nucs as I would like a longer season to take advantage of the early blooms.
Many thanks Lee

Gavin Reply As far as I can make out this request came from a novice beekeeper who lives in an isolated spot in the Highlands and who is even 7 miles from the nearest road. That implies to me that they live in a place without oilseed rape, maybe not many trees, probably exposed and certainly on the cold side. It is just the kind of place that if bees are going to survive they need to be that thrift hardy frugal slow-to-build up type you get in the Highlands.
Are you offering them local stock from a similarly challenged environment - or will the queen be an imported one, entirely unsuitable for this kind of environment? ?154 is a large amount of money to pay for an unsuitable nucleus, if that is what the problem was last time! if that is what the problem was last time!you see you dont know!

Customers reply to GAVIN
I got the original nucleus from Mike last year and had no problems except that I under estimated the amount of stored food and the number of bees that would over winter. I was surprised at just how many bees there were. During the spring we have plenty of gorse and late flowering heather as well as the willow. I have created two large areas specifically for borage and wildflowers, however the croft is covered with buttercups throughout the duration of the summer. And then we are back again to the Heather season. The hive is located in an old stone shed with windbreaks for the front of the hive. I have approached a copy of honey farms in scotland but as expected doesnt sound too promising.
Mike I will contact you next week to discuss if that is appropriate.
many thanks guys
Lee

GAVIN The first time I questioned him here was because he was selling Carnolians to a beginner who is trying to keep bees in the far N of Scotland where forage is very sparse. He openly admitted that he didn't care what people did with the stocks they bought, it didn't seem to be a concern of his. THERE YOU GO AGAIN Judge Gavin and Jury READ THE POST

my reply GAVIN Read my lips this was posted to make aware to others the danger in delivering live bees in early APRIL. queens can and do die in transit. I don?t care about anything else I made me point.

Mission MR Clegg
But I cannot understand why he is needing to do this when his success level at raising them in the UK is superb. Stoped raising queens 3 years ago sent students back home to Macedonia with my breeder queens! As you have read on the old disbanded BBKA post rmember?

The easybee web site clearly states "1,800 carnioli queens reared this year at Mikes breeding yards have been sold to beekeepers in the UK."
At the moment, these Ausie bees have nothing proven.
Mikes web site categorically tells his customers that he has succesfully reared 1800 queens last year. So that in itself is proof that queen rearing in the UK can be done.
The date at the bottom of the web page states it is 24 march 2004 and has not been updated since thenSaturday 07 March, 2009 1238091 requests since Wednesday 24 March, 2004
I am still waiting for a update! I don?t know how to do it myself.

Wendy Mike do the honorable thing and reword your website and make it obvious. If you do I support you fully and wish you all the luck and money in the world. Your customers will respect you and come back for more. They will have no doubts as to what they expect.
Remember many new beeks have not found the forums so telling the truth here is not absolving you from your responsibilities to your new customers.
WENDY if I could update I would, but I don?t know how!
I have been posting on the forums for ages that I import queens.

What I don?t like coming from the other forum! Is the snide underhanded remarks! That are deliberately twisted out of all proportion.

all the best mike I will not wast my time again!

 

[mikethebee]

and I had a very nice evening birthday party
all the best mike

 

[Finman]

.
What is worse in beekeping business than more clever customers!

 

[Mission]

Mike, Im an I.T Consultant and have done a lot of web design. Thats my line of business. I can help you get the web site updated and brought up to date. This will go along way to address some of the issues people are raising.

PM me if your interested.

Jay.

 

[gavin]

What is worse in beekeping business than more clever customers!

Well, obviously (!), a businessman who is so disorganised he can't correct a fraudulently misleading website, who doesn't care about the needs of his customers, who *still* misleads potential customers about his bees in his forum posts, and who is unnecessarily insulting!

Hi Mike

I explained (politely and clearly) why your bees may not the best thing for a new beekeeper on a Scottish croft here:

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=6642&postcount=7

And your reply included this, showing to me a contempt for your customers:

As far as what forage the bees are being sent to has nothing to do with me. I just provide live bees to my costumers the bees can forage off the fence post for all I know.

You complain that you don't know how to update your website and that is why you still give the impression that your bees are home raised. But ... on another forum just eight days ago you said (you added the bold, not me):

Hi Norm thanks for the reply all the bees are produced in the UK .
The package boxes or swarms boxs are specially made coloured blue to hold 3 ? pound of bees plus litre syrup@ ?95.50 each, plus?15 delivery crate which is refundable within 4 weeks.
Photos will be following.
5 Swarms box?s are secured in a crate for transporting and stacked 3 high on a pallet = 45 swarms on each pallet.
Minimum order is 5 swarms delivered ?550
We will have 200 ready for April.
After that remains to be seen?

Hope I have explained myself correctly!
All the best mike

Your post was sufficient to deceive an enthusiast for top bar hives and local bees to spread the word about your new package bees, until he came to realise the truth of the situation.

Snide underhand remarks?! I don't think so, just straight talking.

Here's hoping that the current vigorous state of many beekeeper's stocks and the high prices charged for nucs means that the market will be awash with locally produced nucs this summer!

all the best

Gavin

 

[Chris B]

Here's hoping that the current vigorous state of many beekeeper's stocks and the high prices charged for nucs means that the market will be awash with locally produced nucs this summer!

Let's hope so. There seems to be a huge demand which can only be a good thing in spite of the short term challenge of many inexperienced beekeepers around. It would be great if there was a plentiful supply of home-grown nucs locally throughout the country. However, Mike certainly fills a gap for those keen newcomers who can't wait for painfully slow BKA's to get their act together. 10 years ago I bought my first bees from Mike because all I got from my BKA was "look in Bee Craft". 10 years later things are improving and we are now supplying (and training) most beginners. But the fact remains there are many of us out there who would not have become beekeepers without Mike. It wasn't an ideal introduction for me - the bees were vigorous and stingers and they swarmed, it was sink or swim, and I swam. The onus is really on local suppliers and BKA's to come up with good viable alternatives and promote them effectively. Until then it's no good complaining really.

All the best
Chris

 

[gavin]

The onus is really on local suppliers and BKA's to come up with good viable alternatives and promote them effectively.

Absolutely agree with you there Chris.

Until then it's no good complaining really.

I think that it is right to point out to people the general problems that may come from importing queens, but my main complaint here is the 'rogue trader' element and the unnecessary rudeness.

 

[Poly Hive]

Fair play please.

Well folks here's my two pence worth.

I have no axe to grind beyond fair play and having read some rather astonishing material on another site this is my take.

I have dealt with Mike and will do so again.

I am a business man and have kept bees commercially albiet on a relatively small scale that is some 80 hives. However I had rent to pay and so on.

I lent Mike a rather valuable piece of kit and we are talking thousands here, and had it returned in pristine condition.

The agreed rental was paid and I took delivery of two handsome nucs with which I was very pleased. As far as I could tell they were picked at random so no specials for Pete.

The mans works were neat and tidy and I have seen far worse extracting set ups.

I found him honest and trustworthy, if he has a liability it is an out of date web site. He was great fun to talk to and I cannot fault his manners, I am just a touch surprised I feel I have to say so in public.

There is some serious mud slinging going on and it does not behove some to do so.

Regards

PH

 

[David P]

and I had a very nice evening birthday party
all the best mike

Assuming your b day is 7th march we share a birthday.

 

[mikethebee]

David P
No it was not mine we were invited.
all the best mike

 

[Wendy122]

Mike is see you have an offer to help get your website updated. Now I think that is a win win situation.

W

 

[Wendy122]

Please can I be the 1st to tell Mike what a great job he has done in editing his website to reflect what he actually does and where his queens are from etc.

Mike Well Done. I support you all the way.

W

 

[jimbeekeeper]

I second that as well, well done Mike

He gets a lot of stick (but gives a lot as well).