Our Shipping Policy

We ship live honeybees Monday-Thursday with UPS from South Carolina depending on your location.
Live honeybees tend to die in a warehouse if they sit over the weekend. All guaranteed shipments will be released to shipping only if the package can avoid the weekend wait.  If your shipment is damaged in transit, do not refuse the shipment!  Please accept the shipment and call us to make other arrangements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Only for Ground orders guaranteed to be delivered by Friday from 20640. You can check your shipment transit time or 2nd Day Air & Next Day Air costs by clicking this link: ups.com

Cut-off time for same day shipping is 2:00 Eastern Standard Time.

What does Shipping Cost?

UPS ground shipping is $12.00. UPS 3 day Select is at the advertised price. UPS 2nd Day Air & Next Day Air varies depending on the distance your package travels. You can find these costs at the link posted above.

Shipping to an Apartment

UPS will deliver your package to an Apartment.  However, they will not leave the package at the front door of an Apartment if you are not there.  If you make an order and have shipped to an Apartment, it is your responsibility to be home when UPS makes their delivery.  If you cannot be home, have the shipment sent to your place of employment or to a friend’s house. We will not guarantee shipments where UPS makes an attempt to deliver to an Apartment and no one is home.

Shipping to a PO Box

Only the Post Office can ship to a PO Box.

Live Delivery Guarantee

It’s our policy to make sure you receive live healthy honeybees.  When the weather is in a normal temperature range (32 to 90 degrees), shipping is no problem.  Outside of that range, we have to take extra measures. Your honeybees are shipped in a cardboard container and are packed with plenty of food to keep them happy and healthy for 3 days of transit. All honeybees are guaranteed to arrive alive if you follow these guidelines:

Normal Weather Shipping

When the temperature is above 32 degrees and below 90 degrees, we rarely have any problems with shipping.  In the rare event that your honeybees do arrive all dead call us at (800) 787-4669 and we’ll make another shipment as soon as possible to your location.  We reserve the right to determine if we will make a replacement shipment to you in the event of DOA.

Cold Weather Shipping

Honeybees can cope with the cold much better than they can with very high temperatures. When the temperature is below 32 degrees, we rarely have any problems with shipping if someone is at home to receive them.  We cannot guarantee live delivery if the package is left outside for any amount of time in below freezing temperatures. Have your package shipped to your place of employment or to a neighbor.

UPS as the shipper

We have been using UPS for some time now with relatively good success.   Sometimes they also tend to put the box at the front door without ringing the doorbell.  We put a bright yellow sticker on the front of each box instructing the delivery person to ring doorbell and knock on door.
If your shipment is delayed for any reason after we shipped the package, your best bet is to contact UPS directly and provide them your tracking number.