Our New Chidren Have Arrived, 20,000 of Them!

We picked up our bees yesterday. It was only 50 degrees, a little cold for them. But we got them home and hopefully settled in to their new home.

This is 1 package of bees. They are clustered together for warmth. There is a can of syrup in the middle of them which they are feeding from.

This shows the hive where they will be living. On the right is a feeder in which we will put syrup made of sugar and water until it is warmer and they are out gathering nectar and make their own honey as a food source.

There are 10 removable frames in each box. They have a honeycomb template and are covered with a coating of beeswax. The bees will add wax to enlarge the cells or "draw out" the comb for raising their brood or storing of honey and pollen. This will be their main job for the next little while.

Dad is getting ready to install the package.

He first removes the can of syrup from the box. The can has tiny punctures to allow the bees to feed during transit. These bees arrived from California.

He is covering the hole where the can came out to keep the bees in. He also has to remove the queen who is segregated in her own little box.

Here is the queen! Have to be careful with her. It will cost $30.00 to replace her if she gets away. Dad placed a marshmallow in her escape hole to keep her there. He will hang the box between 2 frames. The bees will eat the marshmallow and release her within 24-48 hours. This gives them times to recognize her pheromones and then they will feed and protect her and feed her brood. She can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day ( if she was properly mated before she arrived) . She needs to have mated with about 20 drones to be vigorous. Dad requested the most promiscuous queen they had :-)

So now dad is tapping and shaking the bees toward the opening.

He wants to get as many out of the box and into the hive as possible. You can see the clump falling out.

 

The bees immediately gather on the comb. They will cluster again to keep warm. At the interior of their cluster, the temp will be about 90 degrees.

Dad will now replace the frames to fill up the space.

Putting the lids on the hive.

The bees that wouldn't shake out are left in front of the hive. bees from inside will signal them to come in. We found the next morning that a few never made it into the hive and died form the cold overnight. Dad peeked under the lid and the successfully hived bees were vigorously feeding on the syrup.