Bee Fever

Well, it finally happened. The idea had been buzzing around for a while, and over Christmas my Dad helped my husband and I build a top-bar hive. I read the Practical Beekeeper by Michael Bush (much of which can be found on his web site, www.bushfarms.com) and absorbed as much of it as I could.

Our top-bar hive has sloped sides, as we felt it would help the comb be a bit stronger in our hot Georgia summers. Of course, we think we will still have some comb collapse in the hottest parts of the summer, but we have tried to locate our hive where there are some trees around to shade the hive without getting in the flight path.

Hiving our package of bees was an exciting event! They arrived on a rainy Monday morning. The post office guy handed them to me across the desk in a postal tray- I think he was a bit nervous about handling them. I was surprised at how quiet they were! I buckled them into the back seat of the car (chuckle). I can only imagine what a police officer would have said if he would have pulled me over just then. "Uh, ma'am? What's that buzzing sound?" = )

The weather was awful that day, so we put them in our garage until the weather calmed down a bit. The weather became unseasonably cold this past week, so we had to hurry when we got home from work to get the bees in the hive on Tuesday (3/19).

Suiting up was an event in itself- we helped each other get all the zippers and Velcro in the right places before heading out to the hive. The bees seemed to get excited as we pried off the lid to the package. I had to be very careful removing the can because the bees were clustered on it. The queen cage was held on with screen- I didn't expect that. I hung it from a top bar on the side of the hive closest to the follower board with the feeder in it, hoping that they would cluster near it and keep warm.

Banging the box on the ground, I then dumped the bees into the hive. I had to laugh, because it was just so ludicrous and magical and wonderful as they poured out of the box. We carefully replaced the bars and put the remainder of the package on the ground in front of the hive. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't all make it because the sun was going down and it was going to get cold.

We came back and checked on them the next day- they were all bunched together inside the hive, and we could see bees going in and out of the feeder board, so we knew they were getting food. Surprisingly, about a hundred bees were still clustered inside the package box, still alive. We decided to take them and knock them into one of those plastic containers with the slits in the lid (we feed our snakes in them). We took them into our laundry room to warm up and fed them.

About an hour later, I swore I could hear something buzzing around in the kitchen. Sure enough, some of the bees had escaped! They were flying around our light in the kitchen. We gently caught them and put them back into the container, and then decided to move the container into the garage. Whoops. Next time, we'll have to just knock them out by the hive instead of trying to be nice to them and bring them inside.

The weather has stayed cold and kind of rainy, so we haven't opened the hive yet. We keep watching the bees from our window with binoculars, having fun seeing the girls go in and out. We think they're taking cleansing flights and doing some orientation. My husband says he has seen some drones leave the hive also, probably heading out to look for queens to mate. We are a little nervous because the bees haven't built any comb yet (that we can see from our observation window), and we are afraid they might abscond if the queen has no place to lay her eggs to anchor them into the hive. The weather is supposed to get warmer for a little bit this weekend, so we're hoping to open up the hive and check on them then, with an umbrella if need be.

My curiosity is out of control. It's so hard to NOT look in the hive every day! We just use the little window and we are careful and quiet when there, just observing general health and behavior. It's amazing how warm the cluster stays. We haven't seen them bringing in any pollen yet, despite the fact that my allergies have been wicked lately. I get nervous that we're not feeding them enough, or that they will leave. Hopefully that won't be the case. Perhaps the cold and rainy weather will help them to make the hive their permanent home and when it warms up they'll start comb building. I can hardly wait to see that.

I'll try to get pictures for upcoming posts- thanks for reading!