Although the practice dates back to the turn of the century, when beehives were shipped by rail, migratory beekeeping came into its own in the United States with the completion of the Interstate highway system and the availability of reliable, high-speed trucks. Additional colonies are moved along less popular pathways and intrastate. Hives with the bees in place are loaded onto flatbed trucks. Usually, the entire load is screened to keep the bees from escaping en route. Colonies are moved from one pollination assignment to another, from one honey crop to another, and from honey production to pollination and vice versa.
Some beekeepers derive a portion of their income from the sale of bees themselves.
They breed queen bees, which should be replaced annually in honey production colonies, and they sell package bees for beekeepers to use in restocking after winter losses or to increase their colony numbers. Queen and package bee breeders are concentrated in areas where spring occurs early - Hawaii, California, and the Southeast. U.S. bee breeders have suffered loss of business in recent years. When parasitic mites were first found in U.S. bees in the mid-1980s, bee breeders lost sales to Canada and other export markets. Also, some domestic producers reduced their bee purchases in fear of buying mite-infested bees.