I got my first package yesterday and installed them into the Top Bar Hive that I built! I think I did pretty well for my first time. I watched a bunch of good installation videos on YouTube over and over before I left to go get them. Picked them up around 1PM and then it was an hour drive to my parents property where their hive is. They were surprisingly quiet for much of the ride but as we got closer to my parent's place they definitely got more agitated and were buzzing pretty good when I finally got there. I set them in a cool shady spot and let them settle down for a couple of hours and then around 4PM I went for it!
I put the feeder in and the entrance reducer on then brought the package up. I pulled out the feeder can and got the queen cage out. One thing I definitely need to get ASAP is a bee brush as I couldn't really get the cover back on without squishing some bees so I just left it off. It wasn't a problem as most of them were occupied with the sugar water I sprayed them with. I put the queen cage in the hive but then realized that I forgot to pull the cork so I had to pull it back out and get the cork out. This flustered me a little bit and of course I immediately got stung as soon as my nerves rose. I took some deep breaths and the rest went fine. I got the queen cage back in the hive and dumped the bees out with no problem. I did have a little trouble closing up the bars without the brush as I didn't want to squish anyone so I had to go really slowly and wait for a clear moment to push them together.
All in all I'm pretty proud of myself. Despite being nervous beforehand I managed to stay mostly calm during the installation and got the job doen fairly quickly. I'll be back out to check on the hive and see that the queen got out of the cage tomorrow and hopefully I'll be a little more comfortable the more I work with them!
Here are some pics of my adventure... Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the installation because my parents were too afraid to come over there and take them, LOL
The bottom of the hive without bars in:
Bottom with most of the bars in:
Painted (pink!) with the roof on:
Box of bees!
The bees in their new home
I put the feeder in and the entrance reducer on then brought the package up. I pulled out the feeder can and got the queen cage out. One thing I definitely need to get ASAP is a bee brush as I couldn't really get the cover back on without squishing some bees so I just left it off. It wasn't a problem as most of them were occupied with the sugar water I sprayed them with. I put the queen cage in the hive but then realized that I forgot to pull the cork so I had to pull it back out and get the cork out. This flustered me a little bit and of course I immediately got stung as soon as my nerves rose. I took some deep breaths and the rest went fine. I got the queen cage back in the hive and dumped the bees out with no problem. I did have a little trouble closing up the bars without the brush as I didn't want to squish anyone so I had to go really slowly and wait for a clear moment to push them together.
All in all I'm pretty proud of myself. Despite being nervous beforehand I managed to stay mostly calm during the installation and got the job doen fairly quickly. I'll be back out to check on the hive and see that the queen got out of the cage tomorrow and hopefully I'll be a little more comfortable the more I work with them!
Here are some pics of my adventure... Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the installation because my parents were too afraid to come over there and take them, LOL
The bottom of the hive without bars in:
Bottom with most of the bars in:
Painted (pink!) with the roof on:
Box of bees!
The bees in their new home
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