Installing the bee package into the hive.

When we last left our story, we were driving home with upwards of 36,000 bees in our station wagon. We kept the a/c blowing at 65ºF to keep them nice and calm. Their cute little legs sticking through the screened boxes were enticing and begging to be touched, but we controlled ourselves.

After we arrived home and put them in the shed, we had to run to Kiddo's school to attend her art show. So they had time to get hot and mad again.

Here's a photo of the North Hive which I sometimes call "mine." It's in our back yard facing SE several yards from the pond and from the back door of the house. You'll see that it has a gray top feeder on top of the deep hive box. I have set it on top of a large piece of cardboard and covered that with pine bark mulch. It was a little off level so I used a wedge of recently cut ash tree to even it out.

By the time Kiddo and I were suited up, Sweetie already had begun to install "his" bees into the South Hive.

Aren't they cute? We decided to forgo the smoking ritual and spray the bees with 50/50 sugar water. Sweetie used organic sugar on his and will undoubtedly will be highly successful with it. Cheapo me, I used regular white sugar. He has a boardman feeder so he fills it up more often. If I had it to do over, I might do it that way too because you can have a visual indicator of how much the bees are eating. I think the top feeder will be more useful in wintering, however. The challenge of the entrance reducer with the boardman feeder should be easier to overcome w/o ruining the reducer. Hmmm. . .it's probably obvious to some of you seasoned keepers.

I missed Sweetie's original "dump" of the package into the hive and didn't get to see his queen cage either. Hopefully I will meet Queen Beatrice of the South later this week. But here's what happened when I overturned my package:

I obviously have a LOT of live bees in there so maybe I shouldn't be quite so disheartened by the big pile of dead bees on the bottom of the hive. In retrospect, I should've realized they were already dead when they poured out of the package like tiny little honey-flavored gumballs (with stingers), clicking as they hit the bottom of the hive box. As I look back on it now, I realize they had probably died in transit but it seems like SUCH a large percentage of them - maybe 30% or more. It's just impossible for a newBEE like me to have an accurate guess, but that's my best estimate. Anyway, they were still there when we opened up the hive a few days later.

We enjoyed watching the orientation flights of many bees that evening and the next morning. Since then it has been rather rainy. We opened up the hives Sunday and uncorked Queen Beatrice of the North, but the queen cage did drop a few inches at one point. Naturally, I'm convinced that I've marred her beyond all ability because I have that kind of confidence in myself. Because I couldn't keep the smoker going, I didn't spend much time in the hive after getting the cork out. Sweetie attempted to uncork Beatrice of the South later but he said the cork had been chewed and he couldn't get it out. I really think we should do these adventures 100% together so we can help each other more. This will be easier once our extra pairs of gloves come in. Don't let anybody talk you into buying only one pair of bee gloves. I also wish we had a nylon hood that could be worn separately from the suit because those things are sweaty hot.

Tonight is the monthly meeting of the local beekeepers association. Kiddo has a ton of homework to do so only one of us - if that - will be able to attend. I really hope it's me. I'm dying to check on Beatrice of the North before I go. Gotta practice with that smoker afterall. Damn rainy days aren't helping.