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.
4 comments:
Hope they don't bother the chickens!
You'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.
Anyway 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.
My bees are really far away from the chickens
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