We spent a lot of time today getting ready for bees. I'll bring home two "packages" midday tomorrow. Today we raked then positioned the boxes. We adjusted the sprinklers. I practiced "smoking" with pine cones, made a couple quarts of sugar water. I think I'm ready.
Tomorrow, I'll pick up the packages, uncork the queen and dump in the bees. The boxes are in a good location I think. Nice morning sun. Good mid afternoon shade. Our magnolia trees have begun to bloom so the bees will like that I hope. A few crocuses, daffodils and chinodoxa are blooming too. Too bad we have a driving rain storm coming tomorrow night. The bees can stay put in their new home.
Hope they don't bother the chickens!
ReplyDeleteYou're going to direct release the queen into the hive? Do you know if the package has been together for at least 3 days already? They might not have gotten used to her yet. Otherwise you might want to use the candy method to delay the introduction for a day.
ReplyDeleteAnyway our hive (overwintered from last year) already has a honey super on it and we are most likely going to get a good crop of maple honey. Yeah!! (Very rare for western Washington to have great weather to actually have the bees on the maple).
The queens do have candy. I guessing they were together for two days before I got them. Congrats on the early honey! Super! Maybe I'll get to do that someday.
ReplyDeleteMy bees are really far away from the chickens
ReplyDelete