Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES => Topic started by: ITstings on March 13, 2009, 11:22:45 PM

Title: packaged bees instulation tbh
Post by: ITstings on March 13, 2009, 11:22:45 PM
May i ask when installing packaged bees in a hive you let them eat the candy to let the queen out ,but you direct release queen right into tbh. sorry im to new to this to understand.I thought they would kill the queen. i have 5 packaged bees coming in may and don't want to mess up. thank you for the help.
Title: Re: packaged bees instulation tbh
Post by: irerob on March 14, 2009, 04:54:21 PM
  I hung the queen on a top bar near the entrance. It worked but maybe i just got lucky.
Title: Re: packaged bees instulation tbh
Post by: beemused on March 14, 2009, 08:42:06 PM
I direct release in a TBH. They have been with the queen for several days usually if shipped. I also put a couple drops of lemongrass oil on the bottom or sides before shaking in the package.

Bruce
Title: Re: packaged bees instulation tbh
Post by: Michael Bush on March 14, 2009, 09:43:03 PM
I would direct release to avoid them building comb off of the cage and then messing up all the rest of the comb  as a result.
Title: Re: packaged bees instulation tbh
Post by: ITstings on March 14, 2009, 10:20:11 PM
I plan on the direct release but was wondering why diff from tbh and regular hive. thanks again for the great advice.
Title: Re: packaged bees instulation tbh
Post by: Michael Bush on March 15, 2009, 08:28:41 PM
BTW I direct release all of mine, TBH or Langstroth.  It's just more important with the TBH or foundationless because if you get them off to a bad start by building comb on the queen cage they will repeat that on every frame.  If you have foundation they will only mess up to combs when they do this, which they almost always do.