Installing the bees-it really was as easy as it looked

We were lucky that it was only early afternoon by the time we got home and as it was a beautiful day, we chose to install the bees in their new homes immediately. The 10 weeks of class paid off when I had all the tools I needed at hand, the sugar syrup had been mixed and was ready and we both were carefully gowned and veiled. While Jack (my husband) manned the video camera, I opened the first package, removed the cage containing the healthy queen bee, placed her in the hive, poured the rest of the package over her, and put all the parts of the hive back together.  By the time I finished with the second hive-Jack claimed that since I was now experienced I should continue-I was getting a bit rattled by all the noise and activity.  I don’t think anything can adequately prepare you for the sensation of being surrounded by a cloud of bees that had been confined for a week.  Imagine spending several days in a closed up house with 10,000 women that you don’t really know and you’ll get an idea of their level of agitation. As I said, I got the bees installed, put the feeder trays on the hives, closed them up and got out of Dodge. 

Four days later, I headed back with the intention of checking to see if the queens had come out of their cages and were starting to lay eggs.  I wasn’t as careful with my gowning this time and forgot one of the cardinal rules of beekeeping-bees don’t like to be messed with the day after they’ve been hive bound by rain.  I had the first hive opened and was about to pull out the queen cage when “the girls” attacked.  They found where my shirt wasn’t tucked in and in seconds I’d been stung 5 times on the stomach and the rest of the hive was in hot pursuit.  I backed away swinging at the attackers (violating another cardinal rule) and did all I could not to turn tail and run. 

(another sister-Kathy-posted this to my Facebook account-very timely I think!

After we’d all calmed down for a few minutes, I came back to the hive, now wearing more secured clothing to finish the job. The bees were still pretty angry but I was able to check that both queens were out and that comb was being built.  I decided not to press my luck by looking for laying patterns and will wait for a few consecutive sunny days to do that.

As of this morning's weather report-that could be sometime next week but hopefully that will change.  In the meantime, I'll just replenish their sugar syrup every three or four days and pray for some nice days.