May 12, 2013

Installation day... and the night before for some humor

It was too windy on Saturday to install the packages so I decided to wait until Sunday. It was suppose to get down to 38 degrees Saturday night and ideally, I wanted my bees to stay in an area ranging between 50 and 70 degrees so naturally I brought them in the house and let them sleep in the closet overnight. My husband woke me up to tell me we had bees flying around in our entryway. Needless to say, we brought them back out to the garage for the night and boy, am I glad we did that! One of the packages had a small opening and on Sunday, we found about 100 bees flying around in our garage!

I went to my bee site around 5:00 Sunday evening. The winds were calm and it was about 60 degrees.

Equipment I brought with:

• Husband
• Bee Suit, Boots, Gloves, Sweatband
• Smoker, Gunny Sack, Scissors, and Torch
• 1:1 Sugar Water and Medication
• Mite-a-Thol
• Fumagilin-B
• Bee Tools
• Mini Marshmallows

Installation went smoothly. I medicated the sugar water, sprayed the hive down with sugar water, placed a mini marshmallow in the opening of the queen cage, placed the queen cage in the middle of the hive, dumped the bees in the hive, sprayed the bees gently with sugar water, and finally place the bag of Mite-a-Thol in the corner of the hive. I made homemade entrances out of sticks. I made sure they fit tightly and had a very small opening. I will return to the hive in 1-2 weeks to ensure the queen was accepted and to check for brood.

**Tips:

• I put a mini marshmallow in the opening of the queen cage. This way, the bees eat through it and get aquainted with the queen a bit more before she starts ruling.
• I've been learning about bees for the passed 3 years and have left over honey and pollen from last year. You want to make sure you have pollen for the bees when installing them.
• Wind is your worst enemy. Make sure you set up your hives in a low wind area, like in the woods, or on the side of a building.
• Bees are most active during the day and when temperatures are above 50 degrees. They will be docile in the early morning and evening so these are good times to install.