My Bees Have Arrived
- Mar 7, 2011
- 2 min read
Today is a day I have long-awaited. I’m extremely happy to announce that my first hive arrived today around 1:00 in the afternoon. Today was not the perfect day for bee transport but that was overlooked and Mr. Floyd delivered the girls as planned.
The second hive will be delivered in about a week to prevent any confusion among the bees. Bees need to have time to scout around and realize they moved to a new neighborhood and be able to recognize their new home.
It was a fairly simple procedure. The bees were netted in their home and transported in the back of a pickup truck. The bee yard has been ready now for a few days and all that remained was to lift the netting and move the hive to its blocks. Mr. Floyd and I moved the netting and he carried the box for me and set it on its blocks. Next I shook out the bees still hanging onto the netting. Bees have a sense of smell so they can smell as well as see their hive so they all congregated around the hive, checking for cracks or any openings they might need to seal off.
I removed the roof and placed a super on top of the hive box. The super is where they build honey as well as lay brood. I placed the top back on and that was that. In about 4 to 5 days I will remove the top and one by one check the frames for evidence of the queen. I might locate her or at least see that she has started to lay eggs. The bees will need to do some housework on the super as it was a little dirty. They clean it up and make it ready for the queen to lay eggs. At this time the bottom hive box has honey for them to consume and stay healthy until they can begin foraging for pollen and nectar.
Ok, I hope you will stay tuned for more info as my week progresses. Patience will be my greatest virtue this week as I am eager to take a look inside to see how my bees are progressing. Stay tuned…..
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