Hi Jeff,
I already gave full details in this thread, and there‘s not more to add.
I‘m more than happy to chat further if you want to direct message me. Either you didn‘t fully understand the circumstances, or you just have a different opinion, which is also fine by me. But I‘m happy to clarify any details you might want.
I fully understood the details, and as an experienced beekeeper, I fully understand the reason why the supplier sent you a queen to help you out as a matter of urgency, because, as I previously pointed out that you wouldn’t want your colony to develop laying workers, which WILL happen if a colony is left queenless for too long.
I thought that after your experience of the recent few weeks that you’d have a greater appreciation of the skills involved in raising such a queen that you have spoken so highly of.
My mentor & I, as queen & bee breeders feel morally strong about this issue.
As a supplier of specific honey bee strains with specific characteristics for specific climate zones, when ordering a specific type of bee to suit my needs and climate zone, I think it is reasonable to expect to receive the type of queen I order. What I don’t expect is that the supplier just sends what they want, a queen not suitable for my climate zone (per information on their website), and I feel it was generous on my part to offer to reimburse them to the transport cost, given I won’t have an idea how this queen will go in Bavaria for a good year or so.
I know no business model in any industry where the supplier gets to ignore the customers request and to supply a different product and expect the customer to pay for it.
I asked you to private message me, so we could continue this in private as this thread is about my Nuc, not a misunderstanding or difference of opinion. I can only assume your posting publicly to try to assert your opinion as correct, when you don’t have all the facts. I don’t think the Flow forum is a place to try and bully or shame anyone who is learning to keep bees. If this is your motive, I don’t appreciate it.
Like I said in an earlier post that this type of thing leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
You are correct, you didn’t receive the strain of bee that you paid for, so therefore you should expect a full refund.
I’ll just bypass any of your future questions for others to answer. I just don’t want to read what a good queen this one is.
In relation to whether the queen will survive your summer or winter, that will be entirely up to you. They are European honeybees after all, that normally live in tree hollows, that have thicker walls than what bee hives do.