We Got Bees!

Our bees finally arrived Tuesday. It was raining and very windy so we did not put them in their hives untill Wednesday. It was still cool and breezy but at least it wasn't raining. We had never hived bees in a Warre hive so were not sure how it would go. While it was a little confusing at times every thing worked out. The queens in both packages looked very good and the bees seem nice and calm. Some hives of bees are just a lot more excitable than others. These both seem calm which is nice for us.

Here I am shaking the bees out of the shipping box into the hive. I have already removed the queen cage from the shipping box and placed it in the hive. Bees will cluster around the queen cage and not get excited. If the bee keeper stays calm and does not move around excessively or make fast movements the bees don't pay much attention to him. The only bee gear I wore to hive these bees was a pair of leather gloves. Ann, who was taking pictures right next to me didn't have any gear at all.

 Here the bees are in their hive. I have the queen cage in my hands and I am removing a little cork that keeps her locked in.When I have gotten bees previously there was a little candy plug under the cork and the bees ate that out and released the queen . When I removed the cork from these there was nothing under it so the queen got to her subjects a little early.The top box on this hive will be removed once the bees have moved down into the hive. I will leave them two hive boxes until they are settled in. I'll have more on the bees as the season progresses.