A Bee-u-tee-ful Day
We got the call on Thursday, time to pick up our bees. So early Saturday morning we left for Hackensack. I only got one package of bees, and this is also my first time with packaged bees. I've gotten nucs before but ended up with a diseased colony last summer.
Getting the package of bees in the hive was a bit more than I bargained for.
Here's the package of bees. There are about 10,000 bees in the package and one queen.
Next, I got suited up. I don't have a bee suit, kinda made my own.
(Yes, I look like a dork.)
I took the queen out and hung her in her little cage on the edge of a frame. Then I took a couple of frames out of the hive and poured the bees into it. They didn't all want to go. :) But I only got stung once.
Next I put on a pollen patty and sprinkled some medicated sugar for them. Then on went the top feeder and I filled it with sugar syrup. Then the cover and I laid the package with the rest of the bees by the opening of the hive.
The back hive is just my unused supers, the front one is the one that the bees are in. By evening all of the bees were in the hive and I closed it up for the night. I checked it again this morning and fed them some more syrup. I think I have happy bees. I'll check on the queen in a day or two and make sure she got out of her cage.
That's that. Hope they do well.
A Bee-u-tee-ful Day
We got the call on Thursday, time to pick up our bees. So early Saturday morning we left for Hackensack. I only got one package of bees, and this is also my first time with packaged bees. I've gotten nucs before but ended up with a diseased colony last summer.
Getting the package of bees in the hive was a bit more than I bargained for.
Here's the package of bees. There are about 10,000 bees in the package and one queen.
Next, I got suited up. I don't have a bee suit, kinda made my own.
(Yes, I look like a dork.)
I took the queen out and hung her in her little cage on the edge of a frame. Then I took a couple of frames out of the hive and poured the bees into it. They didn't all want to go. :) But I only got stung once.
Next I put on a pollen patty and sprinkled some medicated sugar for them. Then on went the top feeder and I filled it with sugar syrup. Then the cover and I laid the package with the rest of the bees by the opening of the hive.
The back hive is just my unused supers, the front one is the one that the bees are in. By evening all of the bees were in the hive and I closed it up for the night. I checked it again this morning and fed them some more syrup. I think I have happy bees. I'll check on the queen in a day or two and make sure she got out of her cage.
That's that. Hope they do well.
1 comment:
I've been "kicking around" the idea of getting bees myself. I don't know anything about bees, but have been reading a little on the internet. You've inspired me to "dig a little deeper" and see if this is something I think I can handle :) Have a great week!
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