You Hived your Package now What?

Hive after hiving Bee package

I know many of you hived your bee packages for the first time in your life, in the last couple of weeks. That is wonderful!

By now your hive should still look like this one, EXCEPT the grass obviously should be gone! Both boxes are plugged and a very small entrance is used.

You put you queen cage in and used a marshmallow to plug it. The queen should have been released by the workers chewing  the sweet marshmallow. This took about 3 or 4 hours. You also remembered to put some pollen patty. If not, put it as soon as possible, right on top of the frames.

24 hours after hiving you should have looked in your hive (using your smoker!) to make sure that the holes in your feeder are not plugged by some sugar. That's it.

Leave you hive alone for 4-7 days, so the queen can start laying eggs in peace and quiet, and the worker bees can make the wax needed for the nest.

As I write this... it is snowing! and only 35F. You bees will be ok, they will cuddle and get warm. Don't open your hive when it is this cold. It needs to be 50F, otherwise you may chill your freshly laid eggs, and larvae .

So, now it has been a week since you installed your bees. You can know look inside the hive. Remember from now on you need to use smoke and have your veil tight!

What you should look for? Good question! You are new at this, so take the first frame out, very slowly, look on both sides. If there is no queen on it, place it on the side of the brood box.

Take another and look if you can spot any eggs? Or larvae, little white c snapped "worm"?
If yes, you have a laying queen...no need to see her. Close everything back.

Put your pollen patty pieces back on , and replenish your sugar syrup (1:1).

New package should be left to themselves for a while. Relax you will have plenty of time to observe them when they are in full swing!

Your next inspecting should be in another 7-10 days.

Happy Beekeeping to all :)