Surprise packaged bees

[Cindi]

Well, I am suddenly getting more bees tomorrow.  A fellow on Vancouver Island I left a message with about a month and a half ago about package bees phoned last night and said that they are ready for Saturday morning.  I was shocked.  I told him that I didn't order any bees, was only making an inquiry about them when I had phoned.  He hadn't returned my phone call so I had presumed that he would not have any available.  Never presume stuff.  I should know that lesson so well by now, after all these years.

He indicated that if I didn't want any packages that it would be OK because he has buyers for all he has.  I decided that why not.  I have the nucs coming next Saturday, why not jump ahead a week and get extra ones.  So, after all is said and done  I will have many new bees to keep me busy  :roll:

Four - 2 pound packages tomorrow (Kona Italians)
Four - 5 frame nucs on the following Saturday (Kona Italians)

I feel good about getting these new bees this year.  I have gained so much more knowledge over the past year with success and failure and I have learned some very good lessons through the failures in particular.  I feel confident that I can keep healthy bees, with no colony losses, such as I experienced last year.

Last year certainly was a year of reckoning.  It was a shame that I lost so many hives due to my inexperience.  But, on the other side of the coin, what I learned from these failures will help me to never repeat again.  So, all is well.

Today will be a busy day, I have many things to arrange in the apiary.  I have lots of stored honey/pollen frames in the freezer and lots of drawn comb.  This will be good for the package bees and the nucs.

My husband has almost finished revamping one of the box stalls we had for our horses into a honey house for me.   It is very big.  We had a huge thoroughbrood mare in there, so it had to be large.  I think it is about  12' X 11'.  Lots of room for everything.  He said that he will finish it off today so we can move all my bee equipment from his garage to the bee house.  He has done a beautiful job of fixing it up, cleaning it up, painting all the walls and ceiling white, so it is so clean.  He even painted the floor grey with cement flooring paint.  He has put a nice sliding window in for me and a glass door so I can get a nice cross through of air for ventilation.  He sealed up any openings so that no bees (or other things for that matter) can get in.  It has three fluorescent light fixtures on the ceiling which he put daylight bulbs in, it is very bright and does indeed look just like daylight.  He put electrical plugs in and re-hooked up the running water we had for the horses.  I am set to have some fun out there.

I am a lucky woman and I am grateful that I have a husband that supports me with my little (or big) projects.  He has worked so hard to make this bee house a clean and beautiful place to be.  I will post some pictures of it when I get things all set up, after this weekend probably.  He will also have my laptop all cleaned up so I can post pictures.

Have a wonderful day, beautiful day, and good health to all.  Cindi

[kensfarm]

Cindy, your honey house sounds like it will be really nice.. I have an old milkhouse on the farm that I want to convert.. it's small but has windows on 2 sides.. concrete floor w/ drain.  It the building that housed the milk tank when this farm was a dairy.

I have 4 nucs & 2 queens coming shortly.. and another 5 queens in the middle of May.  The commercial beek I'm getting my bees from just got 25 queens..  I'm headed over there this weekend to help..  should be a good learning experience.  My equipment is ready..  I have 8 empty hives waiting for bees in the apiary..  it'll be fun!  :) 

[ZuniBee]

To me, that is a very nice surprise! I am still looking for packages or Nucs in VA, NC, MD or PA. Since I wasn't sure if I was moving I couldn't order any more bees. Now that I am staying, I would like to get a couple more packages and a couple Nucs. I'm afraid it is going to be difficult to find any in driving distance.....

[pdmattox]

Oh Cindi, sounds like you got bit hard :-D.  It sounds great and good luck.

[Understudy]

Cindi,

That is awesome. I am glad your spouse is being supportive.
I hope you et lots of honey and end having to do spilts next year.

:-D

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Cindi]

Thanks all for the nice comments.  Yep, like a kid at Christmas time.  4:00 A.M., my eyes opened, my senses became aware.  Do you think that I could go back to sleep, I spent about 30 seconds trying to figure out if I should even dare attempt sleeping more or not.  No..when I open my eyes, that is it, my day begins.  The first thing I do is get out of bed, go out on our bedroom patio and look around outside.  Well, of course this time of day here it is dark, not dawn until about 5:30.  What did I see?

Stars!!!!  Yeah!!!!  The rains have stopped.  We have had hard rain now since Monday and I was wondering when these rains would be finished.  Well, today was the day the rain chose to be gone by the wayside.  That is a good thing.  Seeds have germinated like there was no tomorrow.  I checked it out yesterday, walked all over out the back and yep, bee plants comin' on by the thousands and thousands.  Yeah!!!!

We have to pick up the bees in a neighbouring town that is across the river at 8:30.  We could take the ferry to get there, but the drive is nice on a Saturday morning so early.  We will leave about 7:00 as the drive is about one hour.  I like to give lots of time for travel, it makes driving relaxing, insteading of annoying, with all the road rage that I know I can get (LOL).  Maybe we'll have to stop at MacDonalds and get some breakfast.  Yes...that sounds good.  Something super greasy and fatty to get me off on the good foot for a big day.

My intention is to bring the packages home and keep them in the garage until after suppertime.  The weather will be nice, I have grass to mow within the beeyard.  It grows so long in there.

We had discussion in another post about the grass in immediate apiary areas being fertilized by the bees, be it poop or dead bees.  I think the consensus was dead bees.  Well, if that is the fertilizer that makes this grass grow, too bad it couldn't be harvested for our vegie gardens (lol).

This will be the perfect day to inspect my one remaining colony out of 11 that is left from last year.  I have babied this little colony.  I firmly believe that having the terrarium heater in it to keep it warm as done a work and a wonder.  I couldn't imagine there being any swarm cells, but then, one never knows.  I peeked in about a month ago and they were certainly getting busy.

So, today is gonna be a day of fun, fun, fun and the sun.  Have a wonderful day, beautiful day, good health wishes to all.  Cindi

[DayValleyDahlias]

and?  How is it going, how exciting...I got an email form the local apiary from whence I will get my nuc!  I am to take the hive box over with the frames in it to the beeyard on May 1st ( appropos? )...The I guess she will have me doing some hand on with the bees...she wants me to try gloveless...I feel pretty okay about that...then I will leave the hive box with them until Wednesday eve around 8pm..guess we'll be bringing them to Day Valley, their new home...I am excited and concerned all at once...I sure wouldn't want to creat harm the bees from ignorance...oy vey...

I am so grateful for this forum...wonderful folks grand information

[Brian D. Bray]

I just got back in the house from hiving 4 packages.  I had ordered 3 but they had extra so I thought "Why not?"  I had three hives all set up with feeders already in place etc.  All I had ready was a Deep Nuc I had bought last year incase I had chance to catch a swarm.  The Nuc has plastic frames (bummer).  So I set up the Nuc, sprayed the frames with sugar syrup and installed the bees.  I had to resort to a boardman feeder as the others were already spoken for.  But on the Nuc that reduces the entrance 50% so no big deal.

While I was there I picked up a jug of HBH to mix in with the syrup.  They also did a live demo for some newbee from Enumclaw (near Buckley) who bought 25 packages.  I decided to stay long enough to watch--I was the only idiot there with no veil.  I also stood the closest to the hive.

The hiving took about an hour and went real smooth, until (you guessed it) the last one.  I got fumble fingered and had to catch it in mid air.  By this time there were bees on the outside of the package.  The bees just happened to be between my hands and where I grabbed to package--got nailed 3 times.
I forgot that the wife had used up all the mini-marshmellows for making Rice Crispy treats for my granddaughter so I ended up raiding her Lucky Charms cereal for the mashmellow tidbits.
The son of Ingenuity is desperation.

I am now the proud papa of 2NWC, 1 Iltalian, and 1 Minnestoa Hygenic (in the Nuc)
I'm back in business.

[ZuniBee]

Congrats on your bees! Did you get different kinds of bees for a reason or just because? You will really be able to see how different they are....

[sandhya]

I wish I would accedently get a free package now, that my dumb a#( self lost a queen to freedom today :-P

[DayValleyDahlias]

Marshmallows???  Please enlighten me...hhhmmm :?

[Brian D. Bray]

Yes, I got the different kinds for a reason.  The Italians is what I'm familiar with so that is my control stock so to speak.  The MH I obtained because I wanted to access their reported Varroa sensitivity. The NWC I purchased because I have heard lots of good things about them and wanted to evaluate them as well.  I would have gotten Russians but at the time I ordered my the producer wasn't sure he would have any available.  So I will get into the Russians by purchasing a queen and putting her into a NWC hive split.  I'm interested in the reported cold weather hardiness of the Russians.

The more you learn the more you realize how much more you need to learn.

[tig]

i'm excited to know how the kona's work out for you!  my kona queens arrive in mid june and im impatient for them to make my splits.  would be fun to compare how our kona's perform.  gl!

[Cindi]

Brian, you need to tell us why you needed mini marshmallows when you were hiving your packages. I don't understand it, have tried to figure out why,but can't.  Have a beautiful, happy day, good health.  Cindi

[DayValleyDahlias]

Maybe he puts the mini marshmallows on the stings?  Maybe he just eats them after the stings totake his mind off things?  'Specially the Lucky Charms cuz they're magically delicious?

[ZuniBee]

I'm pretty sure the marshmellows were for the queen cages. If the cage doesn't have candy many people use marshmellows stuffed in the hole to slow release.

Brian, I figured you bought them for a reason. I want to do the same thing so I can see the difference. I look forward to hearing what you think about each type!

[Cindi]

DayValleyDahlias, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.  I really am laughing out loud.  Aren't lucky charms awesome for that sweet morning breakfast treat?  Have the wonderful, beautiful day, good health wishes to all.  Cindi

[Brian D. Bray]

The marshamellows were to replace the cork at the queen cage entrance.  The cages had no attendants and no candy just a cork in one end.  I used the Lucky Charms marshmellows to plug the entrance to the queen cage using just like the candy plug.  It's an old trick that's been around for years.

[DayValleyDahlias]

OOOHHHHHH...how ingeniuous of you...Lucky you had them!