The Bees Are Home!

Our New Honeybees in Chanhassen

Yesterday evening around 6:30 pm  after the last band of rain, Ben and I set out to hive our 4-3# of bees, in Chanhassen. The skies were still grey and threatening but it was clearing somewhat. The honeybees (about 15,000 of them! per package) had been cooped up in small cages since Wednesday and had travelled from California by truck. A bit too much adventure.... I think you would be ready too, to settle down!
 The Vogels came to see what was happening...even their dogs were curious. We were happy to see them, and told them what we were about to do, then they  left us.

Luckily, these bees have an advantage...they will be using what the last bee colonies did all season long before dying. These new packages were placed in hives already containing honey, and collected pollen. In addition the frames are drawn, meaning the old bees had prepared the cells with wax ready to deposit the gathered nectar and pollen. The only thing left for those new honeybees would be some clean up. They will have to remove dead bees stuck in cells, and debris lodged on the frame.

 The hives were still in place since last year. We had done a good clean up earlier during our first visit. So, we first removed the top boxes, which were full of precious honey ( 40-50 lb) in each box! We carried them back to the car, the bees don't need that yet. Then we removed 4 frames from the middle of the box, Ben was careful to leave 2 frames of honey and pollen on each side of the box. I was removing the feeder can from the package, taking the queen cage and placing it in my pocket to keep her warm. In the meantime, Ben was pouring and shaking the bees inside the hive. After I would open the queen cage and let the queen walk on the frame. Lastly, Ben was replacing the 4 frames back slowly, to prevent any bee injuries. Finally we gave them 1/2 a pollen patty and a one gallon pail of 1:1 sugar syrup. And voila! Four times.

Ben removing the center frames

See our four packages!

                                                           

 Everything went relatively well considering it was Friday 13th!!!!

Ben making little dents in pollen patty 

The feeder pail is added

First colony settled!

1. Ben thinks that the first queen flew away when I made a sudden movement with my hand, to push away some bees from the frame, to let her walk freely. We will only know next Friday if we have a queen in that colony. If I see eggs...the queen will be well and alive.
2. Again Ben had an inquisitive bee or two crawling in and  up his pants! So, we had to stop everything.

The light is going down, we still have other packages to do...the bees were crawling higher...passing the knee now. Slowly, very
slowly...removed his shoe, opened the bee suit's
leg, rolling it up, rolling the jeans without scaring the bees for fear that they would sting.... after few
agonizing minutes, one bee left alive, the other one had been crushed.




  Ok, back to business after a big sight of relief. No sting...he had been lucky!
3. I got stung once, on my left hand. I got the reflex to remove my wedding band! My finger looks like a little sausage now!
4. It was a good evening, we were happy and done by 8:00 pm. We look forward to a great season! Happy Beekeeping!