I am now officially a beekeeper! My bees arrived Monday, and I installed the hive Monday evening.
I found a generous neighbor who was willing to let me install a hive in his back-yard garden. My host and his family invited some friends over, and Mike, a classmate from my beekeeping course came out to help. We got the cinder-block base leveled, put the hive on top, and dumped a 2 lb. package of bees into it. The queen bee was in a cage with a sugar plug - the bees eat the plug in 2 - 3 days and let her out. It takes about 3 days for the bees to smell the queen's pheromones before they will accept her as their queen, and the hive as their home. I fed them a pollen patty and some sugar syrup, then put the lid on just as it was about to rain.
The bees will stay in the hive while it's raining, and build honeycomb. When the weather clears up and warms up, they will venture out, orient themselves to their new home, and start foraging for nectar and pollen to bring back to the hive. Once the queen eats her way out of the cage, she will start to lay 1,000 to 3,000 eggs a day.
I'll come back in 3 days to check on the bees, and make sure the queen has gotten out.
I found a generous neighbor who was willing to let me install a hive in his back-yard garden. My host and his family invited some friends over, and Mike, a classmate from my beekeeping course came out to help. We got the cinder-block base leveled, put the hive on top, and dumped a 2 lb. package of bees into it. The queen bee was in a cage with a sugar plug - the bees eat the plug in 2 - 3 days and let her out. It takes about 3 days for the bees to smell the queen's pheromones before they will accept her as their queen, and the hive as their home. I fed them a pollen patty and some sugar syrup, then put the lid on just as it was about to rain.
The bees will stay in the hive while it's raining, and build honeycomb. When the weather clears up and warms up, they will venture out, orient themselves to their new home, and start foraging for nectar and pollen to bring back to the hive. Once the queen eats her way out of the cage, she will start to lay 1,000 to 3,000 eggs a day.
I'll come back in 3 days to check on the bees, and make sure the queen has gotten out.
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