Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Hive #3 installed - mostly

The schoolhouse bees were so well behaved.  They waited patiently in their styrofoam box through the night and this morning.  I got up early to install them in the hive, before it warmed up enough for them to begin their day.  After a light sugar water misting, I managed to secure two of their combs in a frame with rubber bands.  The third comb was too damaged to wrangle into a frame, so I just put it in the hive with bees attached.  I figure I will remove it in a day or two -  I just wanted to get most of the bees inside the new hive.  Comb #4 was too damaged and too small to deal with.  Happily, I did see the queen on the second comb, so I know she survived yesterday's bombing and she is well inside the new hive.  Hopefully this hive can get enough of a start before going into winter. I know I will be feeding them a lot, and will likely pull a frame of brood from hive #2 to help them increase their numbers.
I never imagined that beekeeping would be this fun and exciting!

Update - unfortunately I set up a robbing situation.  I left the styrofoam box near the new hive so the rest of the bees would make their way into their new home.  But unfortunately the other hives caught wind of the spilled honey still inside it.  There are bees all over now... I guess I should go do something.

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