I am SO Excited!

[Dexterjc]

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who contribute to this website. I decided to begin beekeeping in July and have been waiting ever since to start my first two hives. I have read 8+ books on the subject since then, but I constantly find I am learning new things from this community (to be expected). Thank you for providing this wonderful resource.
It is now only 33 days until my bee's will arrive. I got my father interested so he to will be starting a hive this spring. I do have one question for you all though. My Family and I will be going to Disneyland the day our bee's are scheduled to arrive. I leave a 7am so installing that morning will not be an option. So my question is this. Should my father install my bee's for me the day we get them :(? Or can I wait 5 days until I return from Disneyland? I know neither option is ideal for me, but I am pretty sure leaving them in the package that long is a stupid risk and I do not want to put my bee's through any unnecessary stress. At least my dad plan's on taping the event. And no, I cannot reschedule Disneyland....I already tried.  :-D

Happy Beeking!

[skatesailor]

Congratulations and welcome to a great hobby. You learned a life lesson. If you plan one event long range , another event will coincide with it. To answer your question have your dad install them. 5 days is too long. Be happy with the video and your new hive. Best of luck.

[mathew]

If you want to keep the joys of installing a package to yourself, instructing your dad to feed the bees 3 times a day by spraying sugar syrup till you return. Keep the bees in a dark warm room like in a garage or basement. Of course, igetting your dad to install the day he receives the package will be most ideal. Provide your package bees with some frame of honey if you have any, so that they don't have to fly out to forage immediately. If there isn't much in bloom in your area by then, how they get fed must be considered. I am still in sub zero temp and nothing is in bloom. But if you are getting your package in 33 days, it would be safe to say that there would already be several trees or plants that will be flowering by then. Since you are south of me. Cherry Blossoms will be out and lots of garden plants will be in bloom.

[AllenF]

Have the package installed the day they arrive.   How many days were they being shipped plus the extra 5?   Don't put them through that.  See if you can put the shipment off a week.

[iddee]

Do as Allen says. 5 days plus the time they have been caged before you get them is tooooooo long.

[Kathyp]

are they coming to your door, or to some other place like the USP office.  make sure someone is there to take the hand off.  bad thing happen when the sit at the PO or some other place.  i'd have them installed the day or day after they arrive.  you don't want them crammed in that little box for 5 days and if the queen cage is not corked, they may use that time to release her.  that would just increase the risk of losing her as you install.

make sure your dad has clear instructions on installing, or make sure there is someone to help him.  he needs to know how to place the queen cage, etc.

[Michael Bush]

I would have your dad install them.  It's possible to keep them by feeding them, but they will be five more days behind getting started... five days is a lot of time in "bee years" when you consider they only live about six weeks...

[Bee-Bop]

Might want to ask a fellow beekeeper club member, if he/she could stop by for a short time and help your dad.
Be a great learning lesson for dad, then when you got back home, he could teach you.

Ain't that what Dads are for ?

Bee-Bop

[Dexterjc]

I appreciate all of the quick responses last night. I think I will have to just suck it up and let my dad do it. He has ready a few books now and I have shown him a few videos on how I want him to do it. Do you think this will be fine? I really catch on to things quickly so it is hard for me to gauge how well he understands how I want it done. I am half tempted to get a shoe box and make a mock bee package and do some dry runs with it.

[hankdog1]

hahahaha it's not rocket science he should be more then okay with the instructions that comes with the package.  trust me as accident prone as i am if i can install without anything going wrong anybody can.  have faith ya dad will do just fine.  i wouldn't do the dry run thing seems to me it would just serve to make him nervous about the whole thing.  like i say it's easy as pie don't sweat it.

[Bee-Bop]

Again I say; Let Dad handle it his way !

Let's see, he raised you, right ?

Bee-Bop