I am now a beekeeper... well an inexperienced one! So yesterday I drove 2 1/2 hours to Betterbee, and picked up my bees. When I lifted the package, I was pretty surprised on how heavy it was! I knew it was a 3 pounder, but wasn't really expecting it to really be 3 pounds of bees! I also got a veil and bee brush. The veil is really nice, it covers my waist and up, except for my hands. Anyways, i lightly sprayed the bees with syrup that I made the night before. (I just mixed 10 cups of sugar with 11 cups of water.) Then back home we drove off to. It was raining when I was going to Betterbee, but stopped when going home. There was still a overcast. One thing that people never mention about a package of bees, is the amount of heat that comes from it! The queen was toasty warm for sure!
Sprayed the bees more when I got home, and brought them down to the hive. Went in the house to gather my supplies, which was a Flathead screw driver, pliers, a hammer, and 2 marshmallows. I used my invention feeder to feed the bees. By that I mean, I put 2 jars filled with syrup and punched holes in the lid and put them on 2 pieces of wood that are wedged on the bottom of the TBH. I will take pictures of it when I open up the hive. Placed the follower boards in the right spot, and removed some top bars. Then I turned my attention to the bees. Oh the bees. I pried off the lid with the screwdriver and set it aside, then I lifted the queen out and tried to put the plywood back on top of the gap. But I guess I put it on wrong, because the bees started to fly out. At first, I panicked and tried to cover the gap that was releasing 10,000 bees, but then realized the bees weren't going anywhere, and just ended up crushing several bees. They were just flying around me, and man, is it an awesome experience to be working with bees and having them fly around you, waiting for you to put down the queen to they can keep her warm. Speaking of the queen, as I panicked and tried to cover the gap, I was still holding the queen cage with bees covering it. When I calmed down, I realized my hand was covered in bees! I didn't panic at this though. I just shook them off gently, and looked for the queen in the cage. There was several bees in the cage, and to my horror, I realized the queen wasn't marked! Aw, oh well. Then I removed the metal covering the candy (i almost forgot to do this!).I hanged her between bars 4&5 with a wire. I couldn't find the thin wire that I had, so i had to use really thick wire and it was hard to get the queen straight. No biggie. I removed the syrup can and covered the gap... thus killing more innocent bees. =(
Now, I know I wanted to stick the cage in the hive and avoid shaking them out, but I had a urge to shake them and watch them tumble down into their new home and it was too complicated to be removing the package after they crawl out to the queen, and i just couldn't figure out how to fit the box in the hive. So I dumped them in! And Oh my gosh was it fun! It was an awesome experience! I shook them out and banged in down and shook out more leftover bees. Banged and shook out more bees until, there was only 50 bees or so left. Placed the package under the entrance. Then I quickly closed up the hive, by placing the top bars back on top, (i killed a few bees again! Will have to find out a way to stop killing bees when i put top bars back in place!) and putting the plywood cover on top of them. Stepped back and smiled, because now I am a beekeeper!
I totally forgot to take pictures of the installment, because I was so fascinated by the bees! I took some pictures afterwards though.
I know the pictures are not good quality ones. My camera just recently got covered in sand, so it's a bit blurry, but it works!
The bee's water source... about 5 feet away from the entrance.
Here you can faintly see the top bars with Popsicle sticks, and the huge mass of bees. There is another mass on the opposite side, that's why its blurry to the right. This picture is from the window... it's hard to take pictures through glass!
This picture is from the bottom, through the mesh. The dark shape is the cluster of bees. The white specks on the bottom of the mesh is wax particles. Hope they are busy making some comb!
These pictures are from when i actually stuck the camera in the entrance holes! One's with flash and the other is without the flash. You can see part of the cluster of bees to the left. The rectangular light is from the window. The last one is the window open.
Well hope you enjoyed the pictures! Tomorrow I shall go in to check if the queen has been eaten her way out. I am very glad that I took this route to get some bees and use a TBH. Well... let's hope that the bees will do just fine this year! I'm dying to see some beautiful white comb! Lol.
Off I go back down to the hive,
Kris
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