When to check on a new installation

Started by oldenglish, April 08, 2009, 12:13:09 AM

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oldenglish

I hived two langstroth and one TBH on monday, all foundationless.
Apart from opening the top to add feed, how long should I wait until doing a more thorough inspection ?
I did direct release of the queens and as far as I can tell each hive is acting as expected, but then again I am new at this so what do I know  :-D

On a side note, in keeping with naming every animal on the place my kids named the queens, Elizabeth, Mary and Victoria. I guess if one does not work out I become Henry.

Brian D. Bray

Quote from: oldenglish on April 08, 2009, 12:13:09 AM
I hived two langstroth and one TBH on monday, all foundationless.
Apart from opening the top to add feed, how long should I wait until doing a more thorough inspection ?
I did direct release of the queens and as far as I can tell each hive is acting as expected, but then again I am new at this so what do I know  :-D

On a side note, in keeping with naming every animal on the place my kids named the queens, Elizabeth, Mary and Victoria. I guess if one does not work out I become Henry.

I usually wait 5-7 days.  That's long enough to get them started but short enough that they haven't buried the queen cage in the comb.

Now the fund begins.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

oldenglish

looks like saturday is the day, they have the rain coming back Sunday. Hopefully it will be gone again when I get the next two packages on wednesday.

Brian D. Bray

I don't worry too much about the weather here in the PNW as the weather forcasts are usually only half right half the time.  If my hand gets wet when I stick it out the window I know it's raining where I am, might not be the same across the street or 1/2 mile down the road. 
I finally got into my bees during our roasty toasty Sunny 67 F Tuesday.  Checked out both hives and split the Russians.  When I split I put them into a double stacked medium nuc with the bees in the top.  Bees hate a empty space so they will begin working it pretty quickly.  I used one frame of honey and pollen and 3 frames of mixed brood.  I put out 2 gallons of syrup and the bees are ignoring it.  I was kind of surprised to see so much fresh new honey in the hives this early, but the bees are getting out for a few hours every day, unlike last year when we had snow in mid-April.  I ended up cutting out 3 1/2 frames of new honey in order to straighten up a mess.  Yummy...so good, got 4 1/2 pints so handed some out to relatives.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!