Today was the big day when the bees arrived. No longer was this a planning project. I had to put on my bee veil, open a box with thousands of bees in it, and put them into the hive. Lots to talk about!
This morning, I prepped the hive with everything I could do before hand. Emma and I made syrup to feed the bees. It is a pretty simple recipe. Emma measured 1 cup of sugar. I added 1 cup of warm water. Emma stirred. We repeated until the mason jar feeder was full, and we had a little extra for the "bee spritzer". I filled up a bucket of water and put a bunch of wood chips in it, and placed it next to the hive. The wood chips are something for the bees to stand on when they get the water. They cant swim. I put the feeder in the hive, with the syrup. Then I cut up an old tee shirt and stuffed the pieces in 3 of the 4 openings in the hive. This is to limit the number of openings the bees have to guard while they establish the hive. It also makes it slightly more difficult for the queen to escape, taking the rest of the bees with her.
Then, Emma, Mom and Dad drove with me to east of Watertown to pick up our "package". We arrived at a barn with about 2 dozen cars and a line of people waiting for package bees. The line was inside of the barn, where over a thousand boxes of bees were being stored. There were bees flying everywhere in the barn! Just standing in line there was enough to overcome fear of being around honeybees. They are really very gentle. We stood there maybe a half hour, and they never really bothered us. One fellow in front of us bought 40 packages! I bought my one package and put it between the seats of the minivan, ready for the drive home.
Yes, thats right, we drove an hour with a box containing over a thousand live, buzzing bees between us. They were pretty much contained to the box. One was outside the box. Emma named her Hyacinth. I know what you are thinking - how could we possibly drive with a bee loose inside the car?! Really, it was no problem. Hyacinth just sat on the outside of the box and let Emma inspect her. She didn't cause any trouble at all. Emma and Gramma decided it would be a good idea to name all the bees. They came up with quite a few! The queen is named "Magnolia". All of the drones (males) are named "Lazy" because they just sit around and eat. The worker bees mostly have flower names, but I think I'll just call them all Hyacinth. You know, so when I see one, I'll know its name.
We got home and Erin, Ginny, Nathan, Stephanie and Walter all came to watch me attempt to put the bees in the hive. I'm sure they all thought I knew what I was doing, but I was pretty worried about releasing all these bees. I put on my veil and tucked in all my clothes. Emma decided she would help, so I put a veil on her and we found her some gloves. I got all the equipment to the hive, took a deep breath, and started to work.
The first step is to get the bees a little wet with sugar syrup, so they dont fly as much. I used the "spritzer" spray bottle with the syrup we made this morning. I sprayed about a dozen spritzes on them. Then, I put some smoke on them to calm them down. Thank you Uncle Jerry for the smoker! Incidentally, corrugated cardboard worked wonderfully for making smoke. Then, I banged the box on the ground three times. This is so that bees fall to the bottom of the box. I always question the wisdom of shaking a box of bees, but thats what the directions said, so I did it. I used a hive tool (small crowbar) to pry out the metal feeding can that was part of the package. One the can is out, you have a few seconds to slide the queen cage out of a slot, and replace the can before all the bees escape.
The queen has her own cage. I think the reason is twofold. First, the queen hasnt been with this bunch of bees for very long. The queen being in the cage allows them to overcome their first instinct to kill a queen that isnt their own, and lets them get used to her. Second, the cage sure makes it tough for the queen to escape when you first establish your hive. Where the queen is, the bees are. If the queen is in a cage, she aint going anywhere. The problem is eventually releasing her from the cage in the middle of a swarm of bees. The answer? Marshmallows. The queen cage has a cork in it. I removed the cork and replaced it with a marshmallow. Over the next day or so, the bees will eat through the marshmallow and release the queen. Once the queen is out of the cage, it should be easy for me to retrieve the empty cage from the hive.
I put the queen on the bottom of the hive. I've read all kinds of philosophies on this. Some people tell you to hang the queen cage from the top of the hive, and others say to put it on the bottom. I chose the bottom because putting it on the top may cause the bees to build their first honeycomb crooked around the cage, and mess up all the rows. The risk of the bottom is that the bees prefer to be on the top of the hive, where they begin building their comb. They are supposedly happier near the queen at the top. I dont know. If this doesn't work, I'll try the other way next time. I suspect it doesn't really matter.
Once the queen is in the bottom, my next task was to put the rest of the bees into the hive. Here we go. I banged the package on the ground three more times to get them to the bottom. Then I pried out the can again. Yep, as expected, bees flying everywhere. Deep breath. Then I "poured" the bees into the hive. Like water. Shake the box, tip it to the side, shake it some more. Pour the bees in. Bees still flying everywhere. I didn't get all of them (not sure how you could), so I set the open package next to the hive. Then, I put the top bars back in, closing up the hive. I made sure to use my bee brush to gently push them out of the way before putting the bars in. I'm sure I still squished some. I put the roof back on and walked slowly away. Phew!
We've checked it several times since then. Miraculously, they are still in the hive! They seem to be covering the queen cage, so I think they are taking care of her. The feeding jar is covered in bees, so I think they found their food. There are a lot of bees clustered at the top, so I suspect they are beginning to draw out honeycomb. Maybe this will work!
I am impressed at how gently honeybees are. Not a single sting. Not me. Not Emma. Emma was an outstanding helper. She is a brave little girl! I love that she is interested in helping me with this. The honeybees being so gentle convinced me it was ok for her to help. Its a sigh of relief that they are in the hive. I feel like the hard part is over, but I bet I have more ahead of me I dont know about yet!
Stephanie took a lot of pictures and I'll post them soon!
2 comments:
What a wonderful day. While you were waiting to get the bees Emma and I walked around the place. First time with all the bees flying everywhere was a little scary for her and me. I swell up when I get stung. We noticed quite a few bees had been smuched on the ground. Emma was non stop excited. After going in and out about 5 times, she had no fear and neither did I. We went into the store and she read me a storybook about beekeeping. Topped off with a piece of bee candy. Then the ride home. Emma said she wasn't sitting next to any old bees. Grampa would have to carry them. That lasted about ten seconds and then she was fine sitting next to them. I loved seeing you both dressed in your bee outfits. I can't wait to see the pictures. Cool science project. I am proud of you both.
Thanks for inviting us along! It was fascinating. All these beekeepers and all these bees. The guy in charge, Lee is his name, asked a couple of people from farther away how long they had dandelions. It was like when he saw a dandelion it was time to get out the bees and he had seen his first one last Tuesday. OK....Jess says dandelions are one of the hives first food. Another lady in line was looking for advise because she could not get her bees to live over winter. She leaves all the honey they make in the hive for them to eat over the winter but there never seems to be enough. I am waiting to get Jess aside because I do not want him to leave all the honey in the hive. To my great relief, he is not going to. He says he would have told her to think more like a farmer and let some bees die if it means more honey for you. I am sure there is a balance I don't know about that will allow honey and bees. But that lesson for another day. Today was great. That barn full of buzzing, that brave soul shaking the bees, that girl naming bees!! I'm ready for the next installment.
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