Lost mail, more bees

Somehow, the post office lost 15 pounds of bees. Don't ask me how. When the girls didn't arrive by Saturday, I called Buckeye, and they sent out replacements the next week.

So last Friday, my replacement bees came. (Whatever happened to the first bunch? Did the poor girls starve to death in some warehouse?) I hived them Friday evening after work. The weather was great--70s, sunny. Last year, I bought nucs, so this is my first time with packages. I followed the "rules": I sprayed them with sugar syrup about half an hour before I hived them, then again just before I opened the packages.

Still, I got stung. I admit that I didn't wear a veil. All the books say that bees in a package are very gentle, especially if you feed them first. Well, bees don't read books.

The first problem confronted me before I even opened a package: I'm using new frame feeders from Betterbee that have floats. I poured in the syrup and went off to the garage to get my bees. When I returned, syrup was streaming out of the hive. Yep, my brand new plastic frame feeder sprung a leak. Argh. So I replaced it with the old-style (no floats) frame feeder with a bunch of sticks in it to provide some flotation devices for the girls.

I pried the top off, removed the queen cage, removed the syrup can. Hung the queen cage, jarred the bees down, and tried to pour them in. Yeah, most went in, but a lot hung in clumps in the corners. Jarred the package again, tried more pouring... It was harder than it looks in the pictures. One bee stung me on the jaw during the first package install, and that pretty much set the tone for the other four.

Most had started to build a little comb in the package, but one had a good hand-sized piece of snow-white comb attached to the syrup can. Getting that can out was just not going to happen, so I pried off the side of the package.

A leg sting, arm sting, back sting, and scalp sting later, I had all five installed, with food. Packages set in front of the hives so that the stragglers could get into the hives when they were ready.

That's as much as I've ever been stung in one session, but my immune system is cooperative, and other than a red mark on my arm, I suffered no ill effects (couldn't even find the other marks half an hour later).

I have to admit that all that stinging worried me a bit. I mean, the books do say that packages have nothing to protect (well, that one with the palm-sized comb did, sort of) and are gentle. So why was I suddenly a pin cushion? Did I get hot bees? Or were they just in a bad mood from their trip?

The following Tuesday, I donned my veil (just in case), fired up the smoker, and made a brief foray to find out if the queens had been released.

One hive is in my dog's yard--that's the one I can watch all the time as I throw a ball for Max. The other four are in the field behind my house. I opened the one behind the house first and removed the queen cage. The weather had been warm since I'd hived them, and I'd watched the girls coming and going for days. I put a little puff of smoke at the entrance, and another under the cover, and then pulled off the cover. Well, no tornado of bees. I pulled out the queen cage (empty now--she'd been released) and shook off a few bees clinging to it. I discovered some badly drawn, free-hanging comb where the queen cage had violated bee space. (For the novice, that means that the queen cage kept two frames further apart than the bees like, and so they started to fill the void with comb.) I yanked out the comb, shook off the bees, and was happy to see that they didn't object. A quick check of a frame showed larvae, so the queen must have been released pretty darned quick--probably within a day. Since the bees are starting on some drawn comb, it looks like she got right down to business. Good! I pushed the frames together gently, and inserted the tenth frame, and closed up.

I repeated those steps with the other four colonies, yanking out floating comb each time, but not checking for brood. I wanted to minimize the intrusion, since the books say (darned books, there they are again!) that the bees might kill the queen if they are disturbed too soon. All the queens had been released.

The colonies were all gentle and happy, and my work earned me nary a sting this time. So maybe they were just cranky from the trip. Even though I didn't look for eggs or larvae in all the hives, they all seemed normal, happy, and busy, which indicates to me (with my vast experience...of what the books say) that they're queen right.

The good weather ended, unfortunately, two days ago. It's been just cool enough to keep the bees from flying much. Yesterday, the weather got into the high 50s, low 60s during a mostly overcast afternoon. Now, the temperatures are below 50, but I'm glad the girls got a few days of flying and collecting nectar and pollen. I'm giving them syrup, of course, but not pollen substitute patties. I didn't think they'd want them, since we already have pollen now, from maple, daffodils, skunk cabbage, and willows (all of which grow around here in abundance). Indeed, I watched the hive close to the house bring in large amounts of pollen--bright yellow and orange.

The weather forecast for the next two days is rain, high 40s, but Tuesday should be warm enough for them to resume their flights. They'll probably need more syrup, but I'll wait until Tuesday to give it to them. That's the only problem with frame feeders. I know I can just slide the cover over, but I don't want to disturb them even that much just now.