Two 4# packages of lovely little Carnis...will call Day Valley their home in April, yeah!!! :-D
Congradulations and goodluck! :-D
Yup...luck is what I need hahaha TX
Beemaster has special downloadable instructions for hiving packages if i remember correctly. Good Luck.
Quote from: KONASDAD on February 04, 2008, 04:15:11 PM
Beemaster has special downloadable instructions for hiving packages if i remember correctly. Good Luck.
He also has a cool youtube video on the subject.
Oh thanks and I will watch it and watch it and watch it!
wtg! and the best of luck. keep us posted on what happens to them.
Oh O sure will tig.
I watched the Beemaster youtube on installing...noticed that you smoked, didn't spray with sugar syrup? And that you opened up the side screen, instead of opening the top and removing the can...once again, so many ways...must figure out the easiest way for me 8-)
I did mine by opening the top, you just have to do more shaking since the opening is smaller.
Why Carniolans and not Italians? Personal preference? Do they do better in Aptos? May I ask where you bought them? Sorry for all the questions, but I've got to place an order soon and the prices vary quite a bit.
Alan
Hi Alan,
I chose Carni's because that is what I started with and they have seemed to work well with me...as a "new bee", they made it through my novice beekeeping methods...I would like to try Italians one of these days...
Also I purchased them from www.honeybeegenetics.com San Francisco Bee Association is doing a club order for a price break, check with them SOON, and you may be able to hop on board with their ordering...hurry though!
Congrats !
Sharon, yea!!!! So, a four pound package, that is a wonderful size. A four pound package will build up very quickly, compared to say, a two pound package. Lots and lots of bees to nurse those babies that the queen will be creating, yeah!!! You will need to give these lots of room when they get established, four pounds is a lot of bees, good show!!! Have the most beautiful and wonderful day, love our life we live. Cindi
Very exciting! I know I will have to keep them busy so they don't run away!
Thank you so much and good luck with your new bees.
I have put my name in with the local fire departments for swarms, but I want to get an early build up for the nectar flow so will probably order a package. This year should be an excellent one for honey because of all the rain we've had and the previous marginal years.
Quote from: Alan Forbes on February 06, 2008, 11:48:59 AM
I have put my name in with the local fire departments for swarms, but I want to get an early build up for the nectar flow so will probably order a package. This year should be an excellent one for honey because of all the rain we've had and the previous marginal years.
You might want to talk to a few exterminators too, they get swarm calls as well. The smaller independent ones are probably the most willing to work with you on it.
Rick
Quote from: Alan Forbes on February 06, 2008, 11:48:59 AM
Thank you so much and good luck with your new bees.
I have put my name in with the local fire departments for swarms, but I want to get an early build up for the nectar flow so will probably order a package. This year should be an excellent one for honey because of all the rain we've had and the previous marginal years.
Maybe, but I've learned that it usually takes 2 years to recover sufficiently from a drought. The longer the drought the longer the recovery. We've only had a "mild drought" here in Western Washington over the past 2 years (at least in my area) so 1 year maybe sufficient but I'm not counting on it. I look at it as more of another rebuilding year.
Congrats ive been a beekeeper for 3 years but i bought my first hive and got swarm for a second and on my 3rd year i finally done a package and it was a heck of an experience... as of right now my beekeeping career is at a halt cause im serving my country in the US Air Force but would really like to get back to it i still have 3 hives at home that im lookin forward to gettin back to me well ill ttyl grats again
Billy The Beekeeper :-D
>Maybe, but I've learned that it usually takes 2 years to recover sufficiently from a drought. The longer the drought the longer the recovery.
Maybe that explains this year. I've been puzzling over it. We DIDN'T have a drought this year for the first time in eight years, and still there was no fall flow and not much of any other flow.
Yay for you Sharon!
I'd like to order bees again but I better just catch some this year!
When I got my package bees last spring I think I was on the edge of being a "Blubbering Fool"..I felt like there was a Santa again and he left me bees at the post office! I hope you go through the same thing. I dont know what it is, but package bees are a different kind of "exciting" than a caught swarm.Or maybe it was just because they were my first bees.
Now,....you're gonna HEAR the clock ticking the minutes away till your bees get here!
your friend,
john
John, that was funnnneee, I picture you standing there balling your eyes out!!!! :evil: :roll: ;) :)
So Brian, two years to recover from a drought. Maybe we are in for the big one this year (the honeyflow). The year before last (2006) we had a drought here, not a question of a doubt. We did not have any rain for 3 months, June, July, August and well into September. Pardon, we had some rain, but I think that it might have been 5 or 6 days in total. That is not our climate, we experience rainy days in the summertime, not alot, but enough that I don't generally have to water anything, other than hanging baskets. Last summer (2007) we had the worst summer on record. The honeyflow was terrible, basically non-existent. The bees gathered honey, but there were reports of a terrible decrease in nectar flows. We had a cool, moist un-sunny summer.
Maybe this year will be the motherload. Brian, then what you said, about two years after drought, honeyflow, would this be the year, or would it be the next year? We will see, time will tell that tale. Have the most wonderful and greatest day, love our life we live. Cindi
agree w/ Bri' on this one. Particularly if the drought affects hardwoods a lot. In this part of country, when the oaks and maples show effects of drought, it has an impact for a few years. You may get lots of flowers, but less nectar.
Quote from: johnnybigfish on February 06, 2008, 08:22:15 PM
Now,....you're gonna HEAR the clock ticking the minutes away till your bees get here!
your friend,
john
You've got that right JBF! :-D
Don't forget. No strong smelling perfumes or hair conditioners when you install. Perhaps I should remind you again later on. Good Luck
Annette
Quote from: Moonshae on February 05, 2008, 08:29:53 AM
I did mine by opening the top, you just have to do more shaking since the opening is smaller.
We all know how much the bees enjoy that :shock:
Sharon, whether you use syrup or smoke open the side, it is much easier on the bees...... and you :-P
whatever you do, get down close to the hive to do it. i think the syrup has an advantage because it kind of sticks the bees together and gives them something to do right away. it also keeps them happy while you are fishing that queen cage out. i have done mine from the top. shook most in and put the box in front of the hive. the rest found their way in pretty quickly. i was more concerned with getting the queen cage in securely.
brian and MB. i thought our weather last year would have been great for the bees. just the right amount of rain and a great black berry crop. i was wrong. it sucked. the year before was much better. this winter has been really wet. i hope it does not continue into the spring or both my bees and my crops will suffer.
oh my now i am getting nervous,,,hhhm
Sharon, you will be just fine, when you start the process, it will all fall into place, it will feel like you have done this a hundred times. It is amazing how instinct takes over.....have a wonderful, awesome day, Cindi
Cindi, Annette & All,
Thanks for the information and encouragement...heehee...oh but I am still a bit nervous WHOA hahaha
If it makes you feel better my first hive was a full deep of bees. My first inspection I dropped the entire brood nest area. Covered in bees everywhere. Not one sting. You'll be fine. Take care of queen and evrything else will fall into place.
If is makes you feel any better, I am also nervous whenever I have to do anything unusual or different with the bees. It is not that I afraid, just that I never want to make them unhappy.
Always some adrenaline rushing in me regarding the bees.
I just accept it now, and do the best I can.
Annette
Oh golly, I love you guys! Hee hee thanks for all the advice a support...hhhmmm..nothing ventured nothing gained eh?