I installed a package a few weeks back in the 50s in drizzel, well here I am in the upper thirties with drizzel. I am thinking that this is just to cold, what do you guys think?
If you can wait and the forcast looks to improve, that would be best.
Though not recommended, I was once forced, due to circumstances, to install bees in similar condition that you descibe, only the drizzle was snow :shock:
All ended up fine.
the weather here isnt real great either but not that cold...but still its maybe in the high 50's and windy and mostly cloudy and i havent checked my hives for more than a week. its about 2 1/2 weeks since installation of the packages. the weather prospects for the next week dont look much better than this although i dont think they can accurately predict more than 3 days ahead.
so now i dont know whether to open the hives and check them or not.
*drinks beer while deciding*
I hived them with no problems, but they were a little lethargic. I think they'll be fine. The rain let up while I was doing the install, so I got pretty lucky.
How to Hive packaged bee in the rain:
Place an empty deep body over the ten frame brood box that has at least one frame feeder in it--full, thats 9+1. Remove the queen cage, pop the cork, and place midway between the feeder and the middle frames. Place two slats across the frames (use those unused entrance bars) and place the opened package upside down on the slats. No shaking. put on inner and outer tops and return when the weathers better or 5-7 days and it's done. The bees will take it from there.
I use a Nuc box mounted on a magritory top with a 4" hole in the top for this and feeding and a few other things. I haven't shaken bees into a hive in over 30 years and have hived packaged bees in nearly every kind of weather except hurricanes, blizzards, and tornados.