Hiving a New Package of Honeybees

Nicolas (with gloves) and Karine getting ready for the new bees

It is always exciting for a beekeeper to have new bees. This technique of hiving a package as it is called, is wonderful experience.
Nicolas and I hived our package on April 22, 2011. We were waiting for a bit of sunshine among the rain showers that seemed to fill the sky for many days.
Finally the sky cleared and we jumped in the car with all our gear and equipment. It was still gray but the rain had stopped. As we arrive at our destination in Chanhassen...it started to drizzle!
But we were there and our bees had been in the garage for 24 hours confined in a box. They needed to be released.

Spreading the bees

Ben had prepared the hive ahead of time, so we just had to place the bees inside. This year we had an observer, Liz who took all the pictures. I opened the package and took the queen cage and put it in my pocket to keep the queen warm. Nicolas shook the bees into the box. You can see the thousand of bees at the bottom. Now I am trying to "spread" them around with my hive tool in a thinner layer so I can replace the frames I had removed previously.

The Queen is in her own cage

Now that the honeybees were in place, I opened the screen from the little queen cage. I lowered my hand into the box among the humming honeybees, and let the queen crawled by herself onto the foundation. What a Grand Entrance for a Queen! Then I replaced the 4 frames carefully, keeping an eye on the queen making sure I did not injured her.

Nicolas and the pollen patties

 Before closing the hive, Nicolas place a few pieces of pollen patties on top of the frames for the honeybees. This will be their proteins for few weeks as we wait for the nectar flow. We also gave them 2 gallons of sugar syrup.

We the closed up the colony, the box has a cork plug and little pieces of grass block their main entrance. This is to make sure that the group of bees stay in this new dwelling with their queen. They don't know yet that it is their new home.

Honeybees in their new purple hive in Chanhassen

The Package is Installed

New honeybee package

April, 23 2011

Chanhassen: I was lucky this year, I did not have to drive to Stillwater, MN after all to get my package of honeybees.  Someone picked them up for me, and I got them on Thursday (4/21) afternoon. Since it was gloomy, rainy and grey on Friday, the package waited in the garage. I sprayed the bees with sugar syrup every 4 to 6 hours, mostly to calm them.
The honeybees travel from California with a can of syrup, so I knew they had food. As you can see in the package they cluster, to keep themselves and the queen warm and safe.
At this point, the queen is in an individual cage, and has been with this group of bees for 4 days. The 3,000 honeybees  are not related to the queen. The queen has been raised and mated in sunny California. Now she has all the eggs she will need in her lifetime. However, by placing the queen in a "queen-cage" protects her from being killed, and at the same time, she is able to disseminate her pheromone "her specific scent" to her "adopted" honeybees. Therefore when I put them in their hive, the honeybees will accept her readily.

More on the installation later.

Partial Reversal of Boxes

April 17, 2011:
Shakopee

 We took advantage of the sunshine and drove to Shakopee where the bridge was finally open!  

Shakopee #1

Our purple hive, (now called Shakopee #1) is doing fantastic. We saw lots of brood, eggs and larvae which are a very good sign. We did not locate the queen but we know by all that activity that she is laying eggs, and is in good "spring" shape! We also observe some glistening nectar that was deposited in the cells. Honeybees are working hard. We don't see a lot of flowers yet but the bees collect tree nectar right now, and the flow is very good at the moment.

Taken from: Beekeeping in Northern Climates by Dr. Furgala, Dr. Spivak and Mr. Reuter

We also did a "partial reversal", where we take the first box and switch it with the one below. It is suppose to help in preventing swarming, giving the queen more room to lay eggs. It has to be done at the same time every year, no matter what...just like "Tax Day" is unavoidable! It has to be done.

The honeybees are so cute and golden fuzzy; it makes me smile :) They were busy, coming and going.

I saw few ants around and on the hive, so I sprinkled some powder cinnamon on the ground. It is effective to repulse ants.

Shakopee #2 Waiting for honeybees.

This is Shakopee #2, this hive had the Carniolan bees and we lost them to starvation. It has been clean and now waits for honeybees that will come from Shakopee #1 when we do a division or split later this spring. 

Chanhassen

We stopped in Chanhassen, the sun was still shining but a little bit of wind developed. We felt colder. We were greeted by our friends Liz, Gayle, Dick and 2 puppies coming out from their house to hear some fresh news about the honeybee buzzing in their yard.

Chanhassen #1

We inspected the first colony, Chan.#1. Made also a partial reversal,  removed all corks covering entrances, and had a large entrance opened. It was a busy place. The honeybees were flying in and out, and all around us. It seems that they were happy to get some fresh air. We looked at frames and everything looked perfect, eggs, brood, nectar and discovered a "new" queen; she was unpainted! Ours had been painted blue in July 2010, indicating the year "2010". No wonder this colony is looking great.

Chanhassen  #1, beautiful!

Chanhassen #2

Chanhassen #2,  is only 2 deep (2 boxes) because it was a swarm that Ben caught from Chan #1. However, even though it is small hive. It was also doing great, full of honey and bees. Even with only 2 boxes, a partial reversal was done, cork removed, and larger entrance was in place. 

Chanhassen #3

                      Chanhassen #3 is ready to welcome the new package of  honeybees, and a queen. We transferred the frames of honey from Shakopee #2. This will give the new honeybees a wonderful head start. The "bee pickup" is still schedule for April 23 in Stillwater, MN. 

Busy Bees

The little empty colony in Shakopee, awaiting new bees from California.

April 1st. 2011:  We visited our honeybees. To our astonishment they did not touch the pollen patties that Ben and Sophie had placed 10 days or so ago. This can only  mean that our bees have enough food (honey and stored pollen) and that most importantly they can reach their bounty.

Pollen patties left untouched by the bees.

Since temperatures are increasing slowly, the honeybees can move around better, and investigate other part of their hive where they had deposited their summer and fall harvest.

It was very comforting to see them buzzing around us, they did not feel frightened...maybe they remembered us. Ben had the smoker ready and we used it to remind them that we were going to look into their hive.

Ben is removing the protective cardboard.

Now that we believe Spring is here to stay, we removed the black cardboard from each hive. This protection is now unnecessary as the temperatures oscillate between 25F to 50F (-3C & 10C). The honeybees can regulate the warmth of  their colony better.

We also cleaned up the dead bees, those are the one that expired because of old  age. Since most entrances are closed (except the top one) for the winter and bees have to stay in a cluster during the harsh months to stay alive and protect the queen, no cleaning from them is done. In doing so ourselves, we are helping them. Otherwise the honeybees would have to carry each body away from their colony, a long and strenuous job. They can enjoy Spring too!

Dead honeybees at the bottom of a colony.

Scraping unwanted combs.

Many buds on trees are ready to explode and the honeybees are ready to visit them and collect the nectar, pollen and propolis. It won't be long before you see the little one buzzing around in your garden and saying hello. Like us they are happy to be out, and like us they are waiting for nature to show itself.

Honeybees Arrival from California Delayed

We buy our bees from Chico California. This year we will replace the colony in Shakopee which died this winter. We were expecting the bees to arrive on April 9th. but it has been cold below 60F (15.5 C) and rainy. For the Honeybees to thrive, temperatures have to be higher than 60 F and sunny. Northern California is experiencing really poor conditions for rearing queens and preparing packages of bees to be shipped. However this delayed, gives us a little more time to be ready. And overall we do not have such great weather either...snow is still predicted in the next 24-36 hours in Minnesota! What a Spring!

Our new arrival date: April 26

When the queens have mated and are ready to lay eggs, adult bees emerge after 21 days. Then they can be placed in boxes (packages) loaded on a truck and delivered to beekeepers. Hoping for warmer weather very soon. Bees teach us patience that's for sure :)

In the meantime, we will visit our apiaries this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

Thousands of bees are "poured" into packages

Packages waiting to be loaded onto trucks

Truck is being loaded with bee packages

Spring Cleaning is Done!

Look at the Little Darlings!

March 16, 2011 : It was the first  50 F ( 10 C) in a very long time. So, it was decided that it was an excellent day to clean up the colonies! Sophie is home for Spring break and was Ben's helper. Although a little scared of (any) insects, she did very well and took pictures.
In Shakopee, the dead colony was cleaned up, and all the boxes and frames were taken back home, and stored in the garage. There was some honey left over on few frames, so we will be able to use them on our other colonies, or give them to our new honeybee package. Pollen patties were replenished, but Ben noticed that the honeybees only nibbled at them. It is good news... it means they still have enough stored honey.

Frame of Honey

In Chanhassen, the same happened. Cleaning, and moving frames full of honey closer where the bees are located, on the very top of the hive. The honeybees are more daring everyday, flying a little longer, and farther. Soon, they will forage for themselves, in the meantime we will help them.

Buds on trees are visible to the naked eye and plump a good sign that  Spring is here to stay, finally.

Spring is on the Way!

Watch for buds!

This week in Minnesota seems to indicate that we are on our way to Spring! The days are getting longer and warmer. If you take the time to look at trees, some have already fat buds showing like maple trees, basswood, poplars and so on. However, the real good source of food for our bees are the dandelions which will bloom around April 10. So if you see one, please smile!
 The honeybees are flying around the hive in the afternoon when the temperatures are at their warmest. They certainly don't venture too far, but they just take a good look outside and cleansed themselves after a very long winter cooped up into the hive.

Dead bees on bottom board

March 8, 2011: Ben went to clean up the dead colony. Removing the dead bees at the bottom of the hive and brushing every frame carefully. we don't want to damage the work they have done, making the combs with wax. That can be reused by other bees that we will hive (install) mid-April when we get our new package of bees.

Left lower corner of frame: honey

In that particular colony, there is still some honey but for some reason the bees could not get to it. Therefore perishing from hunger. We can use that honey left in the frames to help our other colonies until the nectar flow.

Pollen patty

Since, my husband  had time and it was a beautiful sunny day (40F,  4C), he gave each hive 8 oz (228 g) of pollen patty. This is a source of protein that will help the honeybees survive until they can fetch their own food. We will gave some heavy syrup later in the month.

We will take the time to do a good inspection of each hive sometimes this week as weather permits.