Got my package of bees Sat and put them in their hive.

Here are some pics for those who are interested.

My son spraying sugar water into the drawn comb that the bees will soon call home.

Here is what 9,000 bees (a package) and a queen look like.

me picking out the queen from the middle of the package.

Me putting queen in the hive

Dumping the rest of the bees in the hive.

One got me

What they look like from the top.
[img]http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Beekeeping/DSCN5497.jpg[/img]
The jars are where the sugar water is to feed them.
[img]http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Beekeeping/DSCN5498.jpg[/img]

Have fun,keep'um away from me afraid they would hook up with Africanized strain and I'd be cover and stung to death...or maybe I watch to much Discovery channel

Blammer,

Are those supers or Hive bodies? - Hive bodies are deeper and we always left to there for the winter so they had food. Typically the queen would lay in the hive bodies (wax blades were maybe a foot wide vs. a super frame that was 6-8" wide).

Congrats on the bees, if you don't have a smoker yet you might want to pick one up. and remember scrape those stingers out vs. smashin' them and pushing more juice in.

Spot

yep, got a smoker, and yes on the scraping stingers out, had two to practice on already....

This package I installed in a medium super, with drawn comb. (a bonus)

This particular hive I will use nothing but medium supers, for the brood chamber and the honey supers. I suspect I will have about 3 mediums I will use for the "living" quarters and then put more mediums on as needed. I did this for ease of swapping frames if needed. I could take a frame of honey and put it in the brood area if needed. Etc....

Very Cool!

It'll be 2-3 weeks before we get our bees. My wife had a bad reaction last year, so I'll be supernumary in the bee management this year.

We have polystyrene hives. Wondering what all the cement blocks are for?

Do you not have any blossoms yet? When will you take away the sugar water and let them fly? Ours hit dandelions first and spruce-tree pollen.

Not a bee person, but where does one acquire a clean and healthy batch of bees from now days? A past friend used to ship them in from Hawaii, but I understand the mites finally made it over there. They are indeed becoming a rarity around here in eastern Oregon. I don't think I saw a single honey bee in my yard last summer. 1Minute

Fascinating!!! Thank you so much for the pictures and the explanation.

I'm wondering how the bees get to the sugar water. It looks like two jars with lids on, sitting upside down. Are there small holes in the lids, or something?

I LOVE bees!

Penny

Iron- we had some warm weather last week and everything blossomed! Then the snow came and killed it all off. The spring blooms are done! Apple tree blooms, blueberry etc took a hard hit. So the bees are gonna suffer till something else come in bloom.

there are some local bee people here in NC. Actually a LOT of major bee companies are in this state, so it is not hard.

Barak W- There are a bunch of 1/16 inch holes in the bottom of the jar. the vacuum keep the sugar syrup in the jar and the bees just siphon it out of the bottom when they are hungry.

Here are a few more pics.

Some with bringing in pollen, and the grassy entrance was put there due to a "robbing" situation. about 150 or so "girls" were killed in the melee.

Have you heard about the missing bee's?

US beekeepers have been stung in recent months by the mysterious disappearance of millions of bees threatening honey supplies as well as crops which depend on the insects for pollination.


Click on this link for more info:

http://www.physorg.com/news95135881.html


This could be a serious problem for our bee pollinated fruits and vegetables............Prices could "Sky Rocket"!

Best of luck. Keep an eye out for those hive mites.

neat thread!

When I was a kid we had a couple hundred or more hives. Each summer we'd get calls to come and get swarms out of peoples trees in thier yards.

Nothing funner than putting a super without a few blades in it under a branch giving them some smoke and wacking the branch to get the lot to fall in and let them cover the queen. Of course the other method was to smoke and dig her out by hand.

Spot

Ahhh! Chasing swarms, what a hoot.
The last one I did was when after carefully removing siding from the house of a terror-stricken householder I was informed that I would have to pay him for the bees. I carefully replaced the mangled combs and nailed back the siding and left him with his bees. It took me four or five years to get the Agricultural Commissioner's office to take my name off the bee rescue squad list.
One time Fred Huntington asked me to remove bees from high up on his second story home. It involved trapping them out, a several day job that needed to be completed after dark to leave as few bees as possible. He was anxious to be rid of the beasts, but did not wish the rotting bees in the wall. He finally opted for the Cyanogas and the wax moth mess.
It may have been in _Beekeeping: the Gentle Craft_ that a way of extracting a few hives without an extractor was described.
Hobbyists are well advised to gather for joint extraction parties and sharing queens when a queen fails if you have only one hive.
May Father Langstroth smile on your venture.
Cheers from Darkest California,
Ross

Man, this brings back memories! I used to keep a dozen hives when we lived in Northern Alberta. Fascinating hobby (and profitable, too... 100+ pounds of honey per hive per year). I kind of miss the little buggers.

Your bees are just beautiful! I think it would be so neat to keep bees.

Penny

Way to go Blammer, keep us updated when you can!!!

Neat link Hindsite give too, good info there, and in the replys also.

Yep, heard about the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) as it's now called. Seems to mostly affect the polination beekeeps. Us small timers don't seem to have as big a problem, yet....

Checked on the queen today, she wasn't released so I released her. She scuttled down with the rest and seemed to be ok.

I then made the mistake of pushing the frames together and I think I may have 'rolled' her. (killed in leaymans terms) THAT would suck! I'll dig into the hive tomorrow to see when I replenish the feed bottles. If she's dead I've got a line on a replacment. A $15 mistake. Yes ONE bee cost $15, the rest you buy in gross....

News and pics tomorrow on a different thread.