Ok, a couple questions, i installed 2 packages today,all went very well but on both queen cages the cork was sideways in the hole and no candy,the queens looked alright so i just removed the cork and dumped in the bees, they came from california and seem to be gentle enough, after i got done i shook out the remaining bees they were fanning the hole in the top cover,what does this mean?
You dumped in the queen into a pile of other bees?
Is that what your saying?
If its a new package, she should be alright. Probably the best way to have done it if there was just a cork and no candy to eat out of would be to open the cork and let the queen walk in herself.
Also, you have a hole in your top cover? Doesn't rain get in...?
Usually bees fanning means a few things.
A. Cooling off
B. Spraying Pheremones (Marking their territory)
C. Telling other bees locations to sources of food.
Letter C is however a theory, there are a lot of theories on bee communication. I would put your money on A or B.
Explain yourself a little bit more, also welcome to the wonderful world of solving beekeeping problems.
Jake
Just saying hello -- I'm brand new too. I've had bees about 13 days. Its kind of exciting. I hope your queens do well.
One interesting thing I've read is that if the queen has no candy, to put a mini-marshmallow in the hole after you remove the cork. Knowing that in advance, I checked with my queen supplier to see if she came with a candy plug, which she did. No need for me to hunt down the mini marshmallow.
Bee1
When they are fanning from the entrance, or the hole in the inner cover, they are fanning nasonov pheremone to bring everyone to the new house. A great example is when you catch a swarm. You give a shake and drop the bees in. Next thing you know, there are 100's of bees fanning. Within seconds, you can see the march begin as 1000's of bees begin a parade to the new house. It alway amazes me even thought I've seen a ton of them.
When I pulled my corks, I put in a small marshmallow to give the queen some time to be accepted by the other bees. I was warned by the seller that they didn't put candy in their cages, they provided marshmallows in a baggie. Worked perfect.
It sounds like your bees have accepted her if they're out front fanning.
Shizzel,
The top cover actually is the inner cover that has the hole...thats where they were fanning.
And for the queens, i just hung the cage and then dumped in the package, i see alot of people direct release their queens and i thought it would be alright with a new package.