Installing a Package
Driving with Bees
We drove about 25 minutes to pick up our bees from a farmer who purchased packages of bees in bulk. We were anxious and excited to get the bees since we decided we were going to start on this adventure about one year ago. We’re here! We walk into the barn where there’s tens of boxes of bees just sitting there. So close! He hands me my box and I hold onto it looking at Matt sort of in disbelief. The man we purchased these from gives some parting words of advice and we were on our way.
We put them in the back seat of the truck, securing them with the seatbelt and an extra bungee cord. All are safely in the box - except one, who managed to escape while in the barn and followed our box home. She spent her drive on the windows looking for an escape route while fanning her behind (excreting pheromones to find home). The rest of the bees were safely in the box until we got home, no more escapees to be found.
Hive Prep
Before we picked the bees up we had our setup ready to introduce the bees to the hive box. We had:
Rag: just in case we needed to wipe something off or something spilled
Hive tool and pliers: to remove staples and open the transport box
Nail: to remove the cork from the queen cage
1:1 mix of granulated cane sugar and water in spray gun: to mist the bees while in the transport box
Epipen: just in case...
Check out the post where we talk about the parts of a hive.
Here goes nothing...
First thing’s first: we took a few shots to celebrate (and calm our nerves). We put our astronaut gear - I mean our bee suits - on and walked out to the hive with our box of bees. We misted the the bees with 1:1 sugar water. This reduces their ability to fly away quickly when opening the transport box and clusters the bees together which makes it easier to dump into the hive box.
Using the hive tool and pliers we removed the staples from the 4 corners of the plywood door of the transport box. Below this was the syrup can that fed the bees during their transport. We shimmied this out of the box and swiftly grabbed the queen cage, returning the plywood to keep the rest of the bees covered. In the small cage was the queen plus several worker bees to help her survive the trip. We inspected the queen to ensure she was alive and active - The most vital bee in the entire box! We removed the center 2-4 frames and set them to the side. Looking at the queen cage, we can see that one end has about 0.5-inch thick layer of “candy” or wax with an overlying cork. We wedged the cork out carefully with a nail and placed the cage on the bottom of the hive box with the candy facing perpendicular to the bottom, and the mesh window facing upward so the bees could visualize the queen.
Since we had foundationless frames and it was above 50 degrees, we decided to put the cage on the bottom, setting flat on the mesh screen of the bottom board. It was warm enough outside that the queen could survive without the bees keeping her warm; if it were too cold, the bees would cluster together at the top of the hive box and leave the queen alone below, risking her warmth and her life. Alternatively and perhaps more commonly, the queen cage is wedged in between two frames and suspended toward the top of the hive box.
With the queen in, we were ready to dump 13,000 bees into their new hive! We removed the plywood door again, turned the box upside down, and started gently shaking. What a creepy and unique sensation it was to dump 3 pounds of bees! After we got about 85% of the bees dumped in, we placed the inner cover on top, then the feeder with it’s box, then the outer cover. The transport box with the remaining bees was left next to the entrance to allow the stragglers to enter the hive on their own. The entrance was left open for the sake of the stragglers; some sources suggest plugging the entrance with grass for 24 hours to keep bees in and encourage them to establish their new home in the box. We sat back and watched the bees as they frantically moved about their new hive.
Time to sit back and enjoy the show….
Within a few hours every bee had left the transport box. The only exception was maybe 5 bees, all of which were dead. This was a relief to see so few bees had perished in the transport (these bees had come from the neighboring state of Georgia), especially since we heard the bee seller comment that he likes to see less than 1” of dead bees in bottom of the box. That would be a lot of dead bees. About 50 bees were flying around the hive in circles, slowly flying further and further from the hive. This flying pattern allows bees to orient themselves to their new hive and the surrounding environment. This went on for several hours until we noticed fewer and fewer bees spending time outside the hive. As the sun was setting and it was getting darker, the bees started to become less active until we didn’t see a single bee outside. We can only assume they made their way into their new home.
Both Matt and I agree that this process was much easier than we anticipated. We had all our tools nearby so there was no rushing. The bees weren’t concerned about stinging us - they just wanted to be home. It was mid afternoon when the weather was mild and warm so we didn’t feel rushed. And I’m sure it helped that we had a few shots in our system…!
