Installing Package Bees

[JordanM]

I will be installing 6 new packages of bees on April 20. Is it alright to install all six one after another, or to wait like 15 minutes in between each package that gets installed? I was worrying about if the bees dont know the pheremone of their queen yet they might go to different hives.

[JP]

They have been cooped up with the queen for probably at least 2 days if they were shipped. They know her scent by now.

Go ahead and do one after the other or all at one time if you have that many hands.


...JP

[JordanM]

The thing is there not being shipped they are coming from a local guy out in thumb of Michigan and i dont know how long the bees have had to get to know there queen.

[eri]

Jordan -

I had the same time-to-get-to-know-their-queen question a few days ago and got a couple of answers:

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,21193.msg160968.html#msg160968

I had planned to let them spend the night in the garage, but ended up installing them the same day, after about 4 hours, because high winds were predicted for the following day. Glad I did; the wind was blowing around hundreds of confused bees the next day!