Terms & Conditions – Purchases of Bees and Queens

These terms apply to purchases of live bees and queens from Northumberland Honey Company Limited (“Northumberland Honey Co”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

Please read these terms carefully before placing an order. By placing an order for live bees or queens you agree to these terms in addition to our general Terms & Conditions.

Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights.

1. Live Bees and Queens

1.1 Nature of live bees

Honey bees and queens are living animals. Their development, behaviour and performance are affected by factors outside our control, including weather, forage, handling, transport, husbandry, disease, pests, colony conditions and the environment into which they are introduced.

Dates given for availability, dispatch or collection are therefore estimates unless expressly stated to be a fixed collection date.

1.2 Our bees and queens

We take reasonable care to supply healthy bees and queens meeting the description of the product purchased at the point of supply.

The natural development or subsequent performance of a colony or queen cannot be guaranteed once it has left our care, except where an express guarantee is stated in these terms.

1.3 Experience and equipment

The purchaser is responsible for ensuring that they have suitable equipment, knowledge and arrangements in place to receive, transport, install and care for live bees.

New beekeepers are strongly encouraged to undertake practical training and join their local beekeeping association before purchasing bees.

1.4 Biosecurity

Customers are responsible for complying with applicable bee-health and biosecurity requirements and for maintaining appropriate standards of apiary hygiene and disease control.

We strongly encourage all beekeepers to register their apiaries on BeeBase and to familiarise themselves with current guidance from the National Bee Unit.

2. Orders, Cancellations and Changes

2.1 Acceptance of orders

An order is not accepted until payment has been received and we have issued confirmation of the order.

Availability of live bees is necessarily limited and is dependent upon successful production and development of the bees.

2.2 Consumer rights and live bees

Live bees are perishable living animals whose condition can change rapidly.

The statutory right to cancel certain distance contracts does not apply to goods which are liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly.

This does not affect your statutory rights if goods supplied by us are faulty, not as described or otherwise fail to meet the requirements of applicable consumer law.

2.3 Customer cancellation before supply

Where we agree to accept a customer’s cancellation of an order for bees or queens before supply, 15% of the value of the cancelled bee or queen order will be retained and the remaining 85% refunded.

This reflects the administration, production planning and allocation of limited live-bee stock associated with advance orders.

This cancellation arrangement is offered by Northumberland Honey Co and is separate from any statutory rights that may apply.

2.4 Cancellation within 48 hours of supply or collection

Orders cancelled by the customer within 48 hours of the agreed dispatch or collection time are non-refundable, except where the customer has a statutory right to a refund.

By this stage bees or queens will have been allocated and prepared for that customer’s order and we may be unable reasonably to reallocate them.

2.5 Changes to orders

Requests to alter an existing bee or queen order, including changes to quantity, product, collection arrangements or dispatch arrangements, are subject to availability.

Where a requested change requires cancellation or substantial alteration of an existing allocation, the cancellation provisions above may apply.

We cannot guarantee that requested changes can be accommodated.

3. Collection of Nucleus Colonies

3.1 Fixed collection dates

Where a nucleus colony is sold for collection on a specified date and during a specified time window, the customer must ensure that they are able to attend that collection before placing the order.

The available collection dates and times will be stated on the relevant product page and selected when ordering.

The collection date and time selected by the customer form part of the agreed arrangements for supply of the colony.

3.2 Changing a collection date

Requests to change a selected collection date are subject to availability.

We cannot guarantee that another collection date will be available.

Customers should therefore only order a colony where they can attend their selected collection date and time.

3.3 Failure to collect

If you fail to attend your agreed collection date and time without our prior agreement, you will not be entitled to a refund solely because you have failed to collect your colony.

Honey bee colonies are live, perishable livestock which have been specifically allocated and prepared for collection. They require continuing management and cannot necessarily be held, reallocated or supplied at a later date.

Where reasonably possible, we may, at our discretion, agree an alternative collection arrangement. Any such arrangement is not guaranteed and may be subject to reasonable additional costs associated with maintaining, managing or reallocating the colony.

If we are unable to offer an alternative collection arrangement, this does not create an entitlement to a refund where the failure to complete collection arose from the customer’s failure to attend the agreed collection.

Nothing in this clause affects your statutory rights where the failure to supply arises from a breach by us.

3.4 Delays caused by bees, weather or colony development

Although designated collection dates may be advertised, honey bees remain dependent upon weather and biological development.

If we reasonably consider that a colony is not ready for supply, or that weather or other conditions make the planned collection unsuitable, we reserve the right to postpone collection.

Where this occurs, we will contact the affected customer and offer alternative arrangements.

4. Collection and Transport

4.1 Inspection at collection

Customers collecting bees should raise any immediately apparent concern with us before leaving the collection point.

This does not affect statutory rights in relation to problems that could not reasonably have been identified at collection.

4.2 Transport

Once collected, the purchaser is responsible for transporting the bees appropriately.

Bee colonies must be transported securely, kept adequately ventilated and protected from excessive heat or other conditions likely to harm them.

Bees should never be left unattended in a closed vehicle.

4.3 Transfer and installation

The purchaser is responsible for transferring and installing the bees appropriately following collection.

We cannot accept responsibility for loss resulting from inappropriate transport, installation, handling or subsequent husbandry after the bees have left our care.

5. Queen Bees

5.1 Queens dead on arrival (DOA)

Queens supplied by post should be checked immediately upon delivery.

Our dead-on-arrival (DOA) guarantee applies where a queen is found dead when the package is first opened following delivery.

To make a claim under our DOA guarantee, you must notify us as soon as reasonably possible and in any event within 12 hours of the recorded delivery time, providing:

• your name and order number;

• clear photographic evidence showing the queen in her original cage; and

• any other information we reasonably request to verify the claim.

Claims first reported more than 12 hours after recorded delivery will not normally be accepted as a claim under our DOA guarantee, because we cannot reasonably establish that the queen was dead at the point of delivery rather than having died subsequently.

Please retain the queen, attendants and original cage until we have responded. We may request their return or further photographs before approving a replacement or refund.

Where a valid DOA claim is established, we will provide an appropriate replacement or other remedy in accordance with these terms and applicable consumer law.

This DOA procedure does not exclude any separate statutory rights you may have where you can establish that the queen failed to conform to the contract at the time of supply.

5.2 Introducing queens

Introducing a queen into an established colony carries an inherent risk of rejection.

The purchaser is responsible for ensuring that the receiving colony is suitable for queen introduction and for following appropriate introduction procedures.

Unless otherwise expressly agreed, we cannot guarantee acceptance of a live queen by the receiving colony.

Loss of a queen as a result of rejection, balling, injury, inappropriate release or other events occurring during or following introduction is not covered by our DOA guarantee.

5.3 Non-laying or exclusively drone-laying queens

Mated queens are living animals and their subsequent performance can be affected by introduction, colony conditions, weather, handling and other biological factors outside our control.

If a mated queen supplied by us fails to commence laying, or is laying exclusively drone brood, you must notify us within 21 days of receipt.

This 21-day period provides reasonable time for the queen to be introduced, establish within the receiving colony and for her laying pattern to be assessed.

Please contact us before removing, destroying or replacing the queen wherever reasonably possible.

We may require:

• clear photographs of the queen and/or brood pattern;

• details of the introduction method and receiving colony;

• information about subsequent colony management; and

• the queen to be returned to us for examination where appropriate.

Claims first reported more than 21 days after receipt will not normally be covered by our queen performance guarantee.

After this period, subsequent queen performance may be affected by natural biological processes, colony conditions, beekeeper management or other factors outside our reasonable control.

Where a valid claim is established within the guarantee period, we will provide an appropriate replacement or other remedy in accordance with these terms and applicable consumer law.

This guarantee does not affect any separate statutory rights you may have where you can establish that the queen did not conform to the contract at the time of supply.

5.4 Identification and examination

Where a replacement or refund is requested in relation to a queen, we may require the queen to be returned to us for examination.

We reserve the right to decline a refund or replacement under our guarantee where the queen returned cannot reasonably be identified as the queen supplied by us, or where the available evidence indicates that death or failure resulted from inappropriate handling, introduction or husbandry after supply.

This does not affect the customer’s statutory rights.

6. Queen and Colony Performance, Characteristics and Longevity

6.1 Natural variation

Honey bees are living animals and natural biological variation exists between individual queens and colonies, including queens produced from the same breeding line or parentage.

Our queens and breeding stocks are selected for characteristics which are important within our own bee-farming operation. However, selection and breeding cannot guarantee identical performance or characteristics in every individual queen or her resulting colony.

6.2 Breeding characteristics

Descriptions of our queen lines, breeding programme and selection characteristics describe the traits and breeding objectives for which we select.

These may include characteristics such as temperament, productivity, colony strength, brood pattern, overwintering ability and suitability for the conditions in which we operate.

These descriptions do not constitute a guarantee that every individual queen or colony will express every characteristic to the same degree.

A queen may conform fully to the product description and our standards at the time of supply while her colony subsequently develops or behaves differently from another colony headed by a queen of the same breeding line.

6.3 Temperament and colony behaviour

We select our breeding stocks with temperament in mind; however, we cannot guarantee the future temperament of an individual colony.

Colony temperament can be influenced by numerous factors including genetics, queen status, weather, forage, colony strength, disturbance, disease, beekeeper handling and local environmental conditions.

The temperament of a colony may also change over time.

Descriptions such as calm, gentle or good-tempered therefore describe selection characteristics and breeding objectives rather than an absolute guarantee of future colony behaviour.

6.4 Queen longevity

We cannot guarantee the lifespan or productive longevity of an individual queen.

Queens are living animals and their lifespan and productive performance can vary considerably as a result of natural biological variation, colony conditions, disease, injury, supersedure, beekeeper management and other factors outside our reasonable control.

A queen which is healthy, appropriately mated and laying normally when supplied may subsequently be superseded, lost, injured, cease laying or otherwise fail at any point during her life.

Such an event does not, by itself, establish that the queen was defective or failed to conform to the contract when supplied.

Our specific guarantees relating to queens dead on arrival and queens which fail to commence normal worker brood production are set out in Section 5.

6.5 Productivity and colony development

We cannot guarantee future honey yields, colony population, rate of colony development, overwintering success, swarming behaviour or other measures of colony performance.

These outcomes are affected substantially by weather, forage, location, management and other environmental and biological factors beyond our control.

References to productivity, colony strength or similar characteristics describe the traits for which we select and our experience of the breeding line; they are not guarantees of a particular result from an individual queen or colony.

6.6 Individual variation does not necessarily indicate a defect

The fact that one queen or colony performs differently from another queen or colony of the same type does not, by itself, mean that the queen or colony is defective.

Our queens are supplied as individual living animals, not as genetically identical products.

Provided that a queen conforms to the description and applicable requirements at the point of supply, differences in subsequent performance, longevity, behaviour or expression of breeding characteristics arising through normal biological variation do not, by themselves, give rise to an entitlement to a refund or replacement.

Nothing in this section affects a customer’s statutory rights where a queen or colony did not conform to the contract at the time of supply.

7. Reporting a Problem

If you believe there is a problem with bees or a queen supplied by us, please contact us as soon as reasonably possible.

Please provide:

• your name and order number;

• the date of receipt or collection;

• a clear description of the problem;

• relevant photographs or video where appropriate; and

• details of any relevant introduction, feeding, treatment or management.

Please do not dispose of a queen, cage or other relevant evidence before contacting us where it is reasonably practicable to retain it.

Prompt notification gives us the best opportunity to investigate and resolve genuine problems.

The specific notification periods applicable to our DOA and queen performance guarantees are set out in Section 5 above.

8. Refunds and Replacements

Where we establish that bees or queens supplied by us did not meet the applicable contractual or statutory requirements at the point of supply, we will provide the remedy required by law.

Where we offer a replacement or other remedy beyond a customer’s statutory entitlement, this is at our discretion and does not create an ongoing obligation to provide the same remedy in other circumstances.

Any replacement of live bees or queens is necessarily subject to biological and seasonal availability.

9. Bee Health, Notifiable Disease and Statutory Controls

9.1 Bee health and statutory authorities

Northumberland Honey Co takes bee health and disease control seriously and will cooperate with the National Bee Unit, APHA, authorised Bee Inspectors and other competent authorities in relation to the investigation, tracing and control of notifiable bee diseases and pests.

Customers purchasing bees should understand that the movement and keeping of honey bees may become subject to statutory disease-control measures.

9.2 Sharing information with Bee Inspectors and competent authorities

Where necessary for the investigation, tracing, surveillance or control of a notifiable bee disease or pest, or where required or otherwise lawfully requested by a competent authority, we may provide relevant information concerning purchases or movements of bees or queens to the National Bee Unit, an authorised Bee Inspector, APHA or another competent authority.

This may include:

• customer name and contact details;

• delivery or collection address;

• dates of supply or movement;

• the type and number of bees or queens supplied; and

• other information reasonably necessary to identify or trace relevant bee movements.

Any disclosure of personal information will be limited to information reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose and handled in accordance with applicable data-protection law.

9.3 Notifiable disease and pests

Honey bees are livestock and pests and disease are an inherent risk of beekeeping.

Where a notifiable disease or pest is suspected or confirmed, customers must comply with any applicable reporting requirements and with any instructions, notices, movement restrictions, treatment requirements, destruction requirements or other control measures imposed by an authorised Bee Inspector or other competent authority.

This may include restrictions preventing the movement of bees, colonies, queens, equipment, comb or other material from an affected apiary.

9.4 Disease or statutory controls after supply

Where bees or queens have already been supplied and a disease or pest is subsequently suspected or confirmed, the imposition of statutory inspection, treatment, destruction, standstill or other disease-control measures does not, by itself, create an entitlement to a refund or replacement from Northumberland Honey Co.

Disease may arise, spread or become detectable after supply, and its occurrence does not in itself establish that the bees were diseased or otherwise failed to conform to the contract when supplied.

Northumberland Honey Co cannot reimburse customers for losses arising solely from statutory disease-control measures, treatment, destruction or movement restrictions imposed after supply where the bees conformed to the contract when supplied.

This does not affect statutory rights where there is evidence that the bees did not conform to the contract at the point of supply.

9.5 Standstill or movement restrictions affecting Northumberland Honey Co

If Northumberland Honey Co, one of our apiaries, or bees allocated to an order become subject to a statutory standstill, movement restriction or other official bee-health control, we will not move or release bees in breach of that restriction.

Where the restriction is temporary, affected orders will normally be postponed rather than cancelled.

The bees will be made available for collection or dispatch when the relevant restrictions have been lifted and we are lawfully and reasonably able to supply them.

A temporary statutory standstill, movement restriction, inspection or disease-control measure does not, by itself, create an entitlement to a refund.

We will keep affected customers reasonably informed and arrange a revised collection or dispatch date when supply can lawfully resume.

If statutory disease-control measures ultimately make fulfilment of an order impossible rather than merely delaying it, we will contact the affected customer regarding the available options and deal with the order in accordance with applicable law.

9.6 Foulbrood and other disease-control measures

American foulbrood (AFB) and European foulbrood (EFB) are notifiable diseases and may result in official restrictions and disease-control measures.

Customers purchasing live bees accept that disease surveillance and statutory control are an inherent part of responsible beekeeping.

Where a customer’s apiary or bees become subject to official controls after supply, including inspection, standstill, treatment or destruction, Northumberland Honey Co is not responsible for compensating the customer for those measures or associated losses solely because the bees were originally purchased from us.

Likewise, where our own bees become subject to official controls before supply, we will comply fully with those controls and will not release bees until legally permitted to do so.

Nothing in this section excludes liability or statutory remedies where it is established that bees supplied by us failed to conform to the contract at the time of supply.

10. Events Outside Our Reasonable Control

Bee production is affected by weather, queen mating, colony development, disease, pests and other biological factors which cannot always be predicted or controlled.

Other events outside our reasonable control may also affect our ability to supply live bees on an anticipated date.

Where such circumstances cause a delay, we will contact affected customers as soon as reasonably practicable and explain the available arrangements.

A reasonable delay caused by biological conditions, weather or temporary statutory restrictions does not automatically cancel an order.

Nothing in this section limits any statutory right a customer may have where we are ultimately unable to fulfil an order.

11. General

These Bee & Queen Purchase Terms should be read alongside our general Terms & Conditions and any product-specific information provided before purchase.

Where product-specific terms concern collection dates, dispatch dates, product specification or other arrangements particular to that product, those terms form part of the information on which the order is placed.

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable, this will not affect the remaining provisions so far as they can continue to operate independently.

Nothing in these terms excludes or restricts liability where doing so would be unlawful, or excludes or restricts a consumer’s statutory rights.