when to install entrance reducer?

[manowar422]

when istalling packages...

After installing queen cage and dumping in the bees, there are still
a few left in the wire box,

Should I leave the entrance reducer out
until most or all have found their way into the hive
or put the reducer in before starting?

[Apis629]

I imagine that the bees would be nasoving wtih the enterence reducer in place or not.  I'd just go ahead and put it in.  It seemed to work fine when I installed my first package.

[Finsky]

.
When you put queen cage into hive, bees will go after the queen's smell.

.

[Robo]

Way back when I use to install packages,  I would hang the queen between the frames, gently pour out what bees I could, them put on the inner cover.  Put an empty super over the inner cover and put the cage with remaining bees in that followed by the top cover.  The next day I would remove the empty cage.  I hated shaking the poop out if the cage trying to get the bees out.   John has an excellent method too if you check his bee course.  He just uses a hive tool and pops open the side of the package.  Why didn't I think of that :roll:

[manowar422]

Just came in from installing the packages. Everything went well.
Short orientation flights emanating from both hives after about
two hours or so. It's been a good day and the weather was stupendous :D

Time to celebrate with a cold brew and eat some Sunday supper

[Michael Bush]

My first couple of packages I was gentle and usually the bees all found their way in.  But sometimes they'd get caught in a cold and I'd find a dead clump of bees in the box the next day.  Now I slam the box down on the ground to knock the bees loose and keep dumping them in until there's not more than a half a dozen bees left in the box.  Gentelness is not helpful when installing a package.  Confusion is your friend.

[Jay]

Confusion is your friend.

Then I must be the frendliest guy in world!!  :lol:

[beemaster]

Michael:

I'm just wondering if you are fully suited when installing package? I started the "removal of the slats which hold the screen in place" method because I really like to dress down if possible. I just gently swing the cluster back and forth and they fall into the hive in one gentle motion through the removed screen - I always like to learn different methods, but the shock and awe method is strange to me.

I guess my Tai-Chi of beekeeping theory isn't up your alley, but I never thought of mayhem as an installation process. I surely don't hold a candle to your experience, we just have very different approaches.

I can just a hive tool or pliers to pull the staples free from a shipping cage in under 30 seconds and dump every bee into the hive 5 seconds later without them hardly taking flight, they simple start checking out the new house.

Just curious on the benefits of (what my mentor called the Jiffy Pop Method) of banging and shaking the bees through the feeder can hole like trying to get every penny out of a piggy bank. Thanks :)

[Michael Bush]

>I'm just wondering if you are fully suited when installing package?

I generally wear a jacket and veil all the time.

> the shock and awe method is strange to me.

I agree it seems backwards to the normal gentle approach that works for most things.

>I guess my Tai-Chi of beekeeping theory isn't up your alley, but I never thought of mayhem as an installation process.

A swarm is already in mayhem.  Everyone who ever knocked one off a limb has put them through the same thing.

> I surely don't hold a candle to your experience, we just have very different approaches.

My first approach was to just pull the queen cage out and put it in the box and then add another box and gently turn the package over and leave it in overnight.  The only problem is they might cluster on the lid and build comb in the empty box.  But it's the genlest method.  They just wonder out on their own drawn by the queen's smell.

>I can just a hive tool or pliers to pull the staples free from a shipping cage in under 30 seconds and dump every bee into the hive 5 seconds later without them hardly taking flight, they simple start checking out the new house.

I always spray them with some light syrup and few take flight.

>Just curious on the benefits of (what my mentor called the Jiffy Pop Method) of banging and shaking the bees through the feeder can hole like trying to get every penny out of a piggy bank.

One, for me, is I get to keep the boxes.  Very hand for my bee vac (which I seldom, but occasionally use).  But I also keep figuring maybe someday I'll ship some bees.  Another is that I get all the bees out and very few fly.  Less than if I don't knock them down.  Knocked down they are too confused to fly much.  When I tried leaving a few in the package it worked fine sometimes, but, as I said, sometimes if there was a frost, there was a cluster of dead bees left in the package the next day.

Besides, if you don't knock them down you'll kill some bees just taking the can of syrup out.  :)

[JWW]

I just hived my first package ever and I followed the instructions from what seems to be a popular book. The author uses the "remove queen and syrup can, bang hard on ground and then pour the bees into the hive" method. All went well except he suggest to place the cage on the ground at the entrance and let the remaining bees find their way into the hive. The next day there was a small cluster in the corner of the cage when I went to retrieve it and sure enough they had starting building comb.

I believe that his instruction to spray the cage with syrup about 30 minutes before kept the bees from behaving badly, they were very docile.

[Michael Bush]

I remove the cage and the box if I do a direct release, and I usually do.

[rsilver000]

I learned 25 years ago to use the "shock and awe" treatment for package bees by a 70+ year old neighbor who said the package is small and you don't want to lose any more bees than you have to.  
I don't remember getting stung too much by package bees and used only a veil in the past, no gloves, no full suit.  
This year, I am restarting 3 hives so I might try the gentle persuasion approach vs the shake and bake style and see what happens.
Rob

[manowar422]

I'm with you John, (on the dressing down part) 8)

It's very warm here already and a suit is too hot for me.
I wore only jeans, boots and a tee shirt (tucked in) yesterday
and I plan to try wearing a veil only this year and make use of
some light smoke, BUT . . .
when the nectar stops flowing, I will put on the gloves and suit :shock:

My girls were down right mean last year after the goldenrod
flow ended.