Bees Arriving Dead

Kieran Andersen

Google Reviews · posted approximately three years before collection

I placed an order with Kinnickinnic Bees, this how they arrived. 80% or more were dead. I emailed the company but never got a response. Never again.

Response from the owner

We do not see an email from you or a phone call, but we did locate your account. Though we normally have great luck shipping, every now and again the shipping companies do not treat the bees the way they should and it is why we do not guarantee live bees (other than queens) once we ship them. They leave us very healthy and typically arrive in good shape. We also typically try and help people that have bad luck with shipping to no fault of our own. Here is our shipping policy which you agreed too:

[the shipping-guarantee passage quoted above]

We also do not recommend shipping to Nebraska on our website, which is where you are located. We paid above and beyond your shipping to make sure they got there within the 2-Day standard we set for the packages. We lay out which states we typically ship too here- https://www.kinnibees.com/order-honey-bees

We are sorry you had a bad experience, but if we do not know you are unhappy with your purchase it is impossible for us to try to make it right, we wish you the best of luck with your beekeeping.

Mike Wylin

Google Reviews · posted approximately two years before collection

I just received my two packages both packages were 75% dead so many when I tried to but in the hive the dead bees piled so high I could not set frame in hive I tried to contact Mike for a reasonable response he blamed shipping and said not his problem but he would discount next purchase. Why would I expect a different result next time . Do not buy from this guy.

Response from the owner

We understand your upset, that's why we tried working with you on a solution. We ship bees that are healthy and in good shape when they leave us. If they get to you in poor shape who's fault is that then? This was our response to you: "Oh man. Sounds like they may have gotten too hot and the feed pushed out of the can and got them soaked. We normally have really good luck, but being both are dead, it sounds like they were treated poorly.

We don't have warranties on shipped bees, but I also don't like leaving people hanging. I could offer discounted nucs as I have no more packages and will have more nucs in a week or so. I could offer them to you for around $100 each. I would also give you 2 discounted queens from our yards mid-summer. "

Contrary to our shipping policy-[the shipping-guarantee passage quoted above] Which you agreed to when you purchased them, yet we offered a solution beyond the policy you agreed to, trying to be reasonable.

Ed

Google Reviews, Local Guide · posted approximately one year before collection

I would give 0 stars if it was possible.

I ordered 3 packages of bees this spring 1 package arrived with a dead queen and over 3/4 dead bees.i contacted about the dead queen and package and NOTHING they said they would send another and never heard anything and now I learn the queens in the other packages were NOT BRED QUEENS so all 3 packages were useless.

I have been keeping bees for over 35 years and never had any problems until I tried using this outlet for bees.

I Would Warn against doing business with this place as all they do is TAKE YOUR MONEY AND RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Response from the owner

As per our terms, once shipped, we do not guarantee the bees. Too much can happen and all bees are checked for health before shipping and all queens are sent out mated. Sorry you had a bad shipping experience.

This reviewer's complaint about unmated queens is not a shipping matter. The company's reply states that "all queens are sent out mated."

Amy Covington

Google Reviews · posted approximately ten months before collection

First the good: The bees are fairly gentle and so far I haven't experienced issues with mites. The bees I purchased were from mite-resistant hives.

Now, the bad: I purchased two packages, which cost more than pretty much every other local provider. This was our first year beekeeping. I took the course through the University of MN and we belong to two bee clubs and have a mentor. We immediately went home after getting our packages to hive them. The first box a huge clump of dead bees fell out into our hive box, about 1/3 of the bees. The second package was fine. I immediately contacted Mike at Kinnibees to let him know about the dead bees. I sent a photo. He replied right away and acknowledge it was a heavier amount of dead bees than is normal but said some dead bees is fine. That was the end of the communication.

This hive ultimately failed. Our queen disappeared within 2 weeks. I don't know if it was due to the low number of bees or if she was poorly mated, died, or something else. I reached out to let him know that we lost our queen. I heard nothing. Every other bee company I reached out to, and everyone in our bee club, said the company we got our bees from should replace our queen. And should have replaced our package too.

Before we could get a new queen we realized we had a laying worker. We had to deal with that. Then we introduced a new queen (had to pay $50 for her). She ultimately didn't stick around either. The hive never recovered. Right now they are just building resources and we are going to combine them with our other hive. Our other hive was doing awesome for a while but we also lost our queen there and had to get a new queen shipped, as everyone local was out. We spent $80 having her shipped here. As a new beekeeper, it would have been nice to have more communication. I won't purchase from Kinnibees again.

Response from the owner

If the bees are alive and a queen is viable, we provided our product as promised. Sorry you lost your queen, but not sure how you defined that as our problem, especially as a new beekeeper. I really like the section about how all the others would replace them weeks later. Not many would, especially with a new beekeeper. Sorry you had a bad time, and maybe consider the fact that you could have crushed the queen in inspections, your hive conditions, may have made her leave, etc. This is why we and most others do not guarantee past a couple days at best.

Jim VanBeek

Google Reviews · edited, posted approximately one year before collection

Invoice shows 2 day express shipping, ( guaranteed by USPS). Bees were sent "ground" which has no guarantee on timing. Result= dead bees. Blames everything on the shipper and takes no responsibility. Puts.more effort in responding to reviews than making things right with his customers.

Edit, you call me liar? Everything I say here I have documented proof. And your solution was to give me half off? That's laughable! I already spent $800 for dead bee's, why would I want more?

Response from the owner

This is laughable Jim. We ship everything out with a 2 day max timeframe, that is given to us by the shipper. If it takes more than 2 days that we have been informed, that's on someone else, go write a bad review for the shipper. 2nd, you're a liar! We tried to work with you and gave you a discounted option, which you never even bothered to respond too. It's transactions like this that certainly doesn't want us to work with people, let alone ship them. Better luck with someone else. This is the disclaimer you agreed to- [the shipping-guarantee passage quoted above]

Spencer Black

Google Reviews · posted approximately two months before collection

Really should have read these reviews before I purchased anything from this company. Sounds like his blaming of the shipper is always his go to. I purchased a 3 lb package of bees. I was guaranteed 2 day shipping. The shipping label was printed on Monday. The bees arrived Saturday. 2/3 of them dead. The shipping was express not priority express. I know this for a fact because my wife works for the postal service and also the young lady at our local post office gave me the same information. When I reached out to him he was rude and immediately blamed the post office. He says he done what he was paid for but that's not true. You tried to get over on the shipping cost it looks like. With that you cost me 2/3 of my bees. I know your going to come on here and argue that I agreed to the terms! You'll probably even toss out a legal threat. That's cool I know how this review thing works for Google. Oh yeah, Mike also told me to buy from someone else in the future. You can count on that. I'll tell everyone else to as well.

Edit: He responded quicker to this negative review than he did an email or text.

Response from the owner

You sure did agree to terms, and as I requested you to never buy from us due to your ignorant rudeness. We ship an extra pound of bees to cover any shipping losses. Bye!!!!

This reviewer states his complaint is not that the bees died in transit but that a lower shipping service was used than the one he paid for. He states his wife works for the postal service and that his local post office confirmed the service level.

Robert Garbers

Google Reviews, Local Guide · posted approximately three years before collection

Spring 2023 was my first hive and first experience purchasing bees and supplies. After searching the internet, I chose Kinnickinnic Bees as my package supplier for a great website, reviews, and they advertised exactly what I wanted - Italian/Carniolan hybrid with varroa resistance and wintered in cold climate. I am not in any way certain that I received any of what was advertised. WI did have a bad winter and I supported the delays caused. The package was shipped 2-3 weeks late. I received notice of the shipment on May 1st but the package did arrive at the starting post office till late PM the 3rd and did not arrive here till AM Saturday the 6th. It was $75 shipping and was 2nd day shipping but from preparation to arrival was 5 days. On receipt the queen was dead in the cage. I took pictures and notified the owner. Although he had acknowledged 3 previous emails, he did not acknowledge that one. I checked and opened the cage for confirmation 4 days later and again took pictures and emailed. I did get a reply that he thought also that the queen was dead but he could not help me out till summer. I was able to purchase a local replacement queen and she is slowly recovering the weakened hive of aged bees. As prompted by my new queen supplier, I again emailed and Kinnickinnic and asked for coverage of new queen cost and got no reply. In review of my experience with Kinnickinnic Bees, I was a good customer. I respected all of the issues on their end of the business arrangement. There was a problem causing the package to be worthless and I got zero support including simply respect and communication for my losses. From other negative reviews on the website, I expect a reply to this honest review of how I was supposed to read the "lack of guarantee" for their product. I am told by local and helpful beekeepers that "lack of guarantee" is not how good business is done in this expensive industry. This glowing website is not representative of what you will get if anything goes wrong in your business arrangement with Kinnickinnic Bees.

Response from the owner

Thanks for purchasing, we do have record of us communicating and back on May 9th you emailed:

"I am the Alexandria IN customer #10455. I notified you on the 6th that I thought I may be queenless. I went ahead and went into the hive this evening the 9th. The bees look great. 3 full frames even with foragers out. I looked through them and saw no queen or evidence. But the workers are loading the drawn frames with pollen and nectar. However, they had not even started chewing into the cage. I went ahead and opened the screen and carefully shook the live ones into the hive. I got all three in. But I lost one of the 3 dead. I have two of the dead. I am pretty sure the one is the queen. Attached are two more pictures. I am hoping you can identify. I note the shorter wings and the different shape to the abdomen from the dead nurse bee.

Anyway, I have to believe I am queenless. I hope you can send me a back up right away before I lose the entire package. If not, I need to know right away so that I can purchase something local. "

And we replied that same day with with- "That does look like the queen on the Left. Unfortunately, I have no more queens. I would send you one if I did. I'd be happy to get you won this Summer once we start grafting."

You didn't reply back to us until June 8th, which we missed, we didn't ignore, as we would have been happy to credit you $50 for next seasons bees or a queen once available. Your reply- "I ended up taking a vacation day and found a mated queen and picked her up. $55. I installed the package on Saturday and had the replacement queen in on Thursday. She was out of cage and accepted on the following Sunday. So from my installation till working queen, 8 days. I'm pretty sure I had some laying workers at that inspection. But I think that will correct. By 3 weeks later on the 8th, I should have been hatching some young bees. I'll check next week to see how that is going. My problem now is that all bees are so old, they can't draw comb on foundation. Maybe the new bees will correct that.

I understand your weather issues this spring. However, a package is not a package and sure to fail without a queen. I had the stress and give $55 to get the starter queen. It would be good business to refund that loss. Please let me know if you can do that."

If you still want us to work it out we can, or we will just never do business together again. It's up to you, and we apologize for missing your email. And yes, we do have a shipping policy that does not guarantee packages, as this happens often enough. But we still try to do what we can, but not once someone thinks resolving it, is blasting everything about the company online, while stating everything about the company's product is a lie. We also delay shipping to prevent any unneeded risk in shipping too hot or too cold of weather.

Once again, we truly are sorry you had a less than ideal experience.

Pete Cook

Google Reviews · posted approximately eight months before collection; company replied approximately four months later

I wanted to wait a full year to see how the hybrid bees performed before writing a review, but most of them died after the first bit of cold, so I am sharing my complete story now. Based on what other people said, it sounds like Kinnickinnic Bees might be a good option if you are able to be there in person, but if you want to have bees shipped, please choose a different company or pick them up locally.

The bees I ordered from Kinnickinnic starved to death. I contacted customer support, and they blamed it on the postal service. I disagreed. When I went to pick up the bees, all the other colonies shipped by different companies were alive and well. Also, someone else in the beekeeping community had the same experience with Kinnickinnic - most of the bees they ordered were dead on arrival.

Best I can figure, Kinnickinnic orders a truckload from a different company, sells many of the colonies to the in person pickups, doesn't feed the bees remaining, and eventually brings them to the post office to be shipped elsewhere.

After enough wrangling with the shockingly unprofessional customer support, I was able to get some compensation for the dead bees - one hybrid queen - which I successfully used to start up a hive that did well throughout the summer. The insurance claim was denied because Kinnickinnic bought shipping insurance that does not cover the shipping of live animals. That was one expensive queen.

Their website is all about sustainability, but this practice is an example of the polar opposite. When I asked about this, the response was: their claim to sustainability was all about introducing the hybrid bees that were adapted to the cold and more likely to survive the winter. I was wanted to test this reasoning, and now I know enough. My Italian hive is doing just fine while the hybrids are mostly dead. It is only the middle of November.

Response from the owner

You agreed to terms we lay out quite clearly on the website, before purchase and during purchase, that you, the buyer, takes 100% the risk of bees being shipped. If our mentioning of this is bad customer service, well. It is what it is. Thanks for giving us a try, and sorry you had bad luck with the shipping, and still gave us a 1 star review when we went above what you and we agreed to on our terms of purchase.

The paragraph beginning "Best I can figure" is the reviewer's own stated speculation about the company's operations, marked as such by him, and is reproduced here as written rather than endorsed.

S Smith

Google Reviews · posted approximately two years before collection

Received the 3 lb pack of bees right on time and I installed in the hive the same day according to the video they shared. The video says to check the hive in 3 days to insure the Queen was released from the cage, if not release her. I checked it 4 days after installing and had to release the queen, I watched her go down into the hive. A week later, I wanted to make sure everything was going well, I could not find the Queen, nor larvae, but they were collecting pollen. Concerned, I made a call to Kinnickinnic Bees several times and got the voice mail, I did leave 2 messages. I never received a return call from them. This is disappointing, after reading their reviews. I waited a few weeks as the colony was getting smaller and emailed your company, explaining the situation and once again - NO RESPONSE, the colony should be thriving but is declining. I very disappointed with this situation and the service I have received.

Response from the owner

Thanks for purchasing. I did locate your email and though we will help with some of our customers lack of knowledge in beekeeping, we cannot guarantee any kind of success. After all they are wild bugs. We do not advertise beekeeper support with our bees nor guarantee when shipped, so I am not entirely sure why we deserve a 1-star review for services we do not offer or sell with the bees. I am putting a plan in place for next season to monitor all the communication from customers so emails like yours do not do un-noticed. Thanks!

Hy Smith

Google Reviews · posted approximately two years before collection

Been a beekeeper in the state of Oregon for15 years. Moved to Madison and decided to manage a single brood box since I'm 82.

Re-outfitted and ordered a nuke from Kinnickinnic Bees. Arrived early May as promised.
Very disappointed as
- not even a half a frame of capped brood
-no capped honey
-no new larvae
-One frame of a few eggs
-some nectar
-no pollen
-I did not see a queen
-probably a half of a package of bees

I'll give it a week in their new digs and give you an update.

Certainly not a YouTube nuc!

Response from the owner

Sorry to hear, I will send you an email for more info. Was there many dead bees from transit? I can also get you a new queen if you can confirm she isn't in there.

This reviewer notes the nuc arrived on time. The company's reply here offered a replacement queen and asked for further information.

Jerry Anderson

Google Reviews, Local Guide · edited, posted approximately four weeks before collection

Nucs came with 4 frames, I've always had 5 frames in any Nuc I've had before. Queens were in cages, again I've always had laying queens already in the hive. In fact when I released one of the queens the workers began attacking her! She got out the front entrance alive and took off flying. The other nuc seems to be doing okay.

Response from the owner

So the queen in the second was never released? We explain that these can be 4 frames, as we pull feeders and if we do put a fifth in, it is a new frame. We are happy to send you a frame.