Terms & Conditions

For the beekeeping beginner, or the expert who wants to expand his apiary, Pigeon Mountain Trading Company® has the bees to meet your needs! We offer three-pound packages, nucs, and Queen bees. Our live, Italian bees are only available in the spring and early summer, so be sure to order yours today, as quantities are limited! Please note that all live bee purchases are non-refundable.

Live bees are only shipped using the United States Post Office. Live bees are excluded from free shipping.

Live bees can only be shipped inside the contiguous United States.

Shipping of Live Bees: Pigeon Mountain Trading Company® can only guarantee that the bees are delivered to the USPS in good condition. We cannot and do not in any way guarantee that USPS will deliver the bees to you in good condition. PMTC is no longer liable for the bees once they are accepted by the carrier; our only liability is to deliver the bees to USPS in good condition. Even though we have a great success rate through USPS, we insure all of our bee packages with the carrier in order to protect our customers. In the event that your bees arrive dead or damaged, refunds will be processed by the carrier, not Pigeon Mountain Trading Company®.

For USPS delivery, normally you will have to pick your bees up from your local post office. Please check your bees before accepting the package and do not accept them if they are in bad condition (more than two inches of dead bees in the bottom of the box). In the case that the bees are delivered to your door and they are in bad condition please take pictures of them to provide evidence for your USPS claim. You must file a claim immediately with the postmaster directly.

Also, please understand that we ship our live bees using USPS Priority Mail ONLY so they can be insured, not to expedite shipping time. Your bees will still be delivered by ground. This means that if you are a significant distance from us, such as CA, WA, OR, MT, etc., your bees will take longer than 2-3 days to arrive. The bees have enough sugar syrup in the feeding can provided to last up to 9 days in transit, and again we have a very high success rate using this method.

For NUC Deliveries, we do understand that it is virtually impossible to check the health of a NUC of bees upon pick up at the Post Office. In the case that you get your NUC home and the bees are in bad condition upon opening them, please take pictures for documentation and file your insurance claim with the postmaster directly.

Pick up of bees: If the customer prefers to pick up the bees at our store in LaFayette, GA, the customer accepts full responsibility and liability of the the bees after pick up. A 50% non-refundable deposit is required on all live bee orders for pick up in our store. Once you select a shipping date, it cannot be altered without the permission of PMTC.

Swarms: While PMTC hates to see any customer lose a hive to swarming, we cannot replace your hive once it leaves our store, no matter how short a period of time you have had it.

Due to the limited quantity of bees available, all live bee purchases are non-refundable. You may cancel your order, but you will not get your money back. Once you select a shipping date, it cannot be altered without the permission of PMTC.