Although Thursday early evening was warm enough to see some hive activity, it was too windy to consider opening the hive. Wind gusts to 45 mph. Today will reach the low 70's but I'm off to the golf club, so I'll have to wait now till Saturday to check them out.

Is the queen free yet?

This is day 5. It's been cold and dreary here the past few days and the bees (I hope) are all huddled up inside the hive. They won't fly if it's less than 55 F and yesterday morning we started with a frost, followed by cold rain all day and through the night. I did go out to give a quick look at the hive; but, no activity. I won't remove the top cover and let out valuable heat when it's this cold - so I wait, somewhat impatiently. This morning is bright and sunny but still cold at 42 F - no one is to be seen at the entrance reducer. Hopefully tonight when I come back it'll be warm enough to check on them. I need to know 2 things ... is the queen free yet and how much syrup is left in the top frame feeder? If the queen is free, then I need to remove her cage and rearrange the frames for even spacing. If she's not free - is she still alive or was there some other issue? If she is alive, 5 days should have been enough for her to be freed - guess I'll do the task for her by removing the candy plug. I'll then ever so quickly look to see if any comb is being drawn out, top off the feeder with syrup, close up the hive and leave them alone for a week.

First full day

So much for the rain; but, I can't complain too much. I was out checking on the bees first thing this morning, and sure enough they were out and about. Buzzing here and there in the air, I couldn't see if they were all flying off in the same direction or not. I found some on the crab apple tree blossoms, and some on the pink phlox. They'd come in and settle for a while on the landing strip, mill around a bit, and either walk into the hive or buzz off again. I dared not get too close (10-12 feet) for fear of setting off an early alarm. I figured they had enough to worry about with a new house, new environment, new queen, and an urgent need to build up comb without worrying about this 210+ lb monster getting in their way.



One of the things I look forward to is just sitting and observing them as they go about their business. Fortunately a nice long lens allows me to get close without being right in their faces.

It's nice to get some photos early on.

The bees have arrived ... all 10,000 of them

In theory I should still be in Ireland with Charlotte, but due to the volcano eruption in Iceland, that trip was cancelled. We opted to take the week off anyway and spent a day in Princeton, 2 days in Philadelphia, 2 days in Baltimore, and ending with a day in Newport, RI. This meant we were home mid-day Saturday vs late Sunday night and I was able to get the bees earlier than expected from a friend who, in my absence, was kind enough to pick them up for me. I had some experienced help lined up to assist me with the installation; but, that was when the plan was to do them on Monday or Tuesday. Today (Saturday) was sunny and warm, and the forecast for the next 3 days was for rain, so I decided that now was best the time to install the bees. After 2 years of reading and preparing for bees, the day has finally arrived.

A 3 lb box of bees is amazing ... 2 sides are screened, the top has holes cut out to accept a can of sugar water to nourish them during transport, and another hole that houses the queen cage - both are covered with an added piece of wood to secure them in place. Peering in the sides, and looking at the shapes of the bees all tightly clustered in the center around the can of sugar water, I'd never picture that I have 10,000 bees in there. Interesting buzz sound from the bees ... and it gets louder as they are exposed to light.

So off I go ... I made up a fresh solution of 5 lbs sugar to 2.5 qts water, and allowed it to cool off to be ready to use. The hive is ready, top frame feeder is ready, all frames in place, tools together, protective equipment ready ... deep breath. It's 4:40 PM as I brought the bees into more light, the buzzing sound grew louder, yet as soon as I "painted" the sides with a brush saturated in the sugar solution, they quieted right down ... nice. Out into the back yard I go, hat, veil, gloves on ... pulled off the added piece of wood on the top, and carefully removed the queen's cage. quite a few more bees followed her out, so I placed the loose wood back on top. I bought a marked queen so I could easily distinguish her highness from the crowd of female workers and few male drones. She was shipped with a few attendants along side of her in the cage. Removing a staple from one side of the metal cap covering the candy plug, I bent the cap over for use in suspending the cage between a couple of frames. After carefully making a slight indentation in the candy with a nail, I placed the cage between 2 frames. So far, easy task. I had quite a few bees buzzing around me, yet surprisingly I was calm, not a hint of anxiety or panic. The next step was the big test

I prepared a well for the rest of the bees by pulling 2 frames out of the hive. Going back to the package, I removed the wood and carefully pried out the sugar water can. It was more full than I thought and it took a fair amount of effort and patience to get my fingers around it. As soon as that can was out, so came quite a few more bees. Remembering what I had read and what I had viewed on numerous YouTube videos, I quickly knocked the box on the ground to shake the bees to the bottom, then inverted the box over the well and proceeded to pour the bees into the hive. A few hand knocks on the wooded sides, and angling the box back and forth a bit, I felt like I had most of the bees out. I already had the hive opening reducer set to the smallest opening, so I leaned the bee box up against the opening and proceeded to go back to the frames. I carefully brushed most of the bees from the top of the frames into the well, then carefully added back both frames into the hive. I set the inner cover in place, put the top hive feeder on top and stood there in awe. I did it!!! Yes there were hundreds of bees buzzing all around me, but I felt very comfortable standing there. I went back to get the sugar water, poured it in place, then set the telescoping top cover in place. 5:10 PM

As the day wore on, I would periodically go out, look around, see that I had bees going in and out of the hive. I noticed that those flying about, and those hanging out at the hive entrance were fewer and fewer as the temperature dropped towards sunset. By twilight, there were only 3 or 4 at the hive entrance, all others presumably were in the hive, cozy and warm, checking over their new home.

Success!