Man, the night before bee day is like Christmas when I was a kid. Um, so we ended up with three packages of bees, which is 3 1/2 pounds of bees, which looks like this.
Alright, there is a caged queen in there. And that little can there is full of syrup , which I’m gonna dump these guys into the hive. The queen is still in her cage, she’s, not familiar to these bees.
I have become in the last couple years maybe a little too cavalier in releasing the queen early , and it was suggested to me that I wait with these guys and I am for once in my life gonna do what someone told me and leave her in there, and let them adjust well.
So, in the meantime, what we’re gonna do is pull out this nutrition.. then I’m gonna turn this over and dump the bees. If you’ve seen me do this before they kinda go like damp sand.
I’m just gonna put that nutrition can to the side and I’m gonna take our BEAUTIFUL queen here, and put her in...well there, I think, is a good sign that they will accept her.... maybe I’ll roll the dice, and let her out... and actually this is my backyard hive and so, I’ll be close by no matter what happens if I do.
If you haven’t seen this before, it kind of looks actually more impressive than it kind of is.
AND, at this point I’m gonna leave the stragglers...”IS THERE A BEE ON FACE? I CAN’T TELL...IS THERE A BEE ON MY FACE? NO? COOL!” ::there are many bees on my face and head:: The Beekeepers Wife is watching from afar.
Aaaaaand, hell with it! I said I was going to do what I was told, but I lied. So...she’s out, and she’s in. So we are going to replace some of these frames...while these ladies get to know the lay of the land a little bit. And what I’m gonna do is put some frames down for them...I’m gonna throw some pollen, and some syrup that I made ahead of time on top there...and we, are gonna leave these bees to do their thing.
And believe it or not, all these stragglers are going to make their way into the hive...despite the fact they may not feel so great having been thumped and dumped (in there). OH, we’ve got a great frame of pollen and honey here. THAT will bring them back.
And so we will come back in a couple of days, to hopefully find a very happy very actively laying queen, who is, who has a hive who is, eating the meals I’ve left for them. Which is, actually just gonna leave it all wrapped and let them take care of it, this is a protein substitute patty ...which I’ll leave above where I want her to lay her eggs...and I hate doing this with so many bees in the air, but...I’m gonna put some syrup there, and a bunch of them are going to dive in , they’re never going to get out , um, but there will be a few gallons of syrup. HANG TIGHT!
Someday I’m gonna get all these things lined up, before I start the video. I’m putting a little bit of wintergreen in there, attracts the bees to the syrup. I’ve got to do this quick because they’re trying to get in the top there, which is again not. Ideal. Because there’s no actual way into the hive ...once they’re on the top there.
What we’ve done now is moved a large family into a big house, and to kind of take some of the stress off them we’ve given them a big meal with a lot of protein and a lot of carbohydrates, and we told them to stay home and settle in...and we will check back a little later in the week and hope...that that’s what they’ve done.
Thanks! Join us then 🐝🐝🐝
Italian Bee package installation for 2021 in the Backyard Hive