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Mann Lake Ltd. employee Will Giddings, right, places boxes containing thousands of honey bees for pick-up as beekeeper/sales associate Amanda Kelly looks on at the facility in the Hanover Industrial Estates on Saturday afternoon.

Customer Robert Vanness of Clarks Summit picks up his package of honey bees at the Mann Lake Ltd. beekeeping supply company in Hanover Township on Saturday morning.

Thousands of honey bees wait to be picked up at the Mann Lake Ltd. beekeeping supply company in Hanover Township on Saturday morning.

HANOVER TWP. — The trip wasn’t over for the more than half-million honey bees Dennis Remsburger loaded onto his truck Saturday morning for the drive back to New York State.

They had been trucked from California to beekeeping supply company Mann Lake Ltd.’s store in the Hanover Industrial Estates for delivery to backyard beekeepers and commercial honey producers alike. The end of the road was still a few hours away in Pleasant Valley where Remsburger has 200 colonies.

This weekend was the first of four this month for Remsburger and others to pick up the wire mesh and wood-framed boxes each containing a queen and between 10,000 and 15,000 female worker bees. In total, approximately 21 million bees would be relocated to urban and rural locations for pollination of plants and crops with the ultimate reward of sweet honey from their hives.

The store did something different this year, offering two varieties of bees, said Troy Martinson, who heads commercial sales for Mann Lake based in Hackensack, Minnesota.

“It’s usually been Italians. This was the first year we’re selling Carniolans,” Martinson said. A package of bees, including the queen, sold for $120 each.

Both species, introduced to the United States from Europe, are gentle and productive. The Carniolans are better suited for areas with long winters and travel farther for forage than Italian honeybees.

Remsburger covered 40 packages with tarps and secured them with straps to the bed of his Dodge truck. He packed another 10 into the back seat of the club cab. He divided his purchase into 40 Carniolans and 10 Italians.

“I really don’t have a preference. To me a honey bee is a honey bee,” Remsburger said.

He’s been a beekeeper since 1999 and with partner Juliette Landi operates Remsburger Honey & Maple. They sell their products in the Green Market at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, he said.

Todd Trotte of New Jersey had plenty of room in his pickup truck for five packages. He bought them to replace the colonies that didn’t make it through the winter. He’s been a beekeeper for a few years and harvested approximately 2½ gallons of honey last year.

“It was just a whim,” he said of why he started. “My great grandparents did it.”

The winter took its toll on some of Bob Reed’s bees. He picked up three packages of Carniolans. “Supposedly they go farther,” he said of the bees’ ability to search for pollen and nectar.

He’s been getting his hives ready for another season. Reed said he can’t keep bees on his property in Tamaqua so he set up his hives on friend’s farm.

Jim and Steph Stoner of Marysville said they’ve switched to honey from sugar for use as their sweetener in everything from tea to baking.

They’ve been beekeepers for approximately five years and picked up three packages, one Italian and two Carniolans.

One of their hives made it through the winter, but they also lost one, they said.

They harvested nearly 100 pounds of honey one year and it lasted them two years. But that’s not always been the case.

“It’s been hit or miss,” Jim Stoner said.