It's Friday the 15th, and the queen has arrived via 2nd day UPS. There were 5 attendants with her - only 4 survived the trip/treatment to get here.
The weather here today is a nor'easter storm of wind and rain, with the temperature at a warmish 54. There have been a few breaks in the rain and sun rays would show up off and on for periods of time. I decided that the quicker I got the queen into the hive, the better the chances of survival for both she and the entire hive. I am following Bob's advice and removing all but one attendant and her queen in the cage. I poked a good sized hole in the candy plug, created a wire hanger for the cage so I can suspend it between some frames and plodded out to the hive.
I didn't waste any time in getting down to the bottom deep. It was good to see a fair amount of bees sitting on top of some frames. I didn't bother with a smoker today as I wanted to be in and out quickly. I noticed that as soon as I started to pull a frame, a few bees had other ideas about me being there and immediately began to buzz my face , arms, and hands. I pulled the end frame out, slid four others over a bit and made room for the queen cage. The coat hanger wire piece I fashion for the top worked perfectly as I suspend the cage in the center between frames. As soon as I moved the queen into place, it was obvious that quite a few of the bees in the area could smell the new bee (newbie?) and began to focus on her and not me. I closed up the hive, took that 10th frame with me to store inside for 3 or 4 days till the queen is hopefully freed, then after pulling the empty cage, there will be room again for it in the hive.
It's late in the year to be doing this (I believe) yet, it's about my only shot at trying to keep this hive going through the winter into spring - fingers crossed that it will work.
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