The Honey Factory

[duluthralphie]

My bees are early, they will be here in a couple hours.

they come in the middle of a typhoon.

 

[CLSranch]

Mine were to be shipped from today-12, but after the nation wide cold snap that even hit Georgia with freezing weather when it should have been in the 70's they have been delayed by up to 2 weeks. So I'm not sure when they'll show.

 

[duluthralphie]

Mine were to be shipped from today-12, but after the nation wide cold snap that even hit Georgia with freezing weather when it should have been in the 70's they have been delayed by up to 2 weeks. So I'm not sure when they'll show.

No nationwide cold snap here, it’s been in the 80s

 

[CLSranch]

It's warm here today. But it did get down to -17 in that snap, after having 60's in December & January.

 

[duluthralphie]

I have my bees here, but I think they will stay in the truck overnight.

It’s getting late and the weather sux. I will try to get them in early. If the rains stop.

 

[CLSranch]

I have my bees here, but I think they will stay in the truck overnight.

It’s getting late and the weather sux. I will try to get them in early. If the rains stop.

Best o' luck to ya.

 

[duluthralphie]

Best o' luck to ya.

Thanks, this constant rain is killing me.

 

[duluthralphie]

About the bees.

I have them in the hive box. Marking a queen with my fingers was not fun. She has a small dot on her.

I had left the marking pen in the hive overnight to cut down on things I needed to carry out today. Dumb move!

Marking pens with Marking Paint in them freeze up over night. I was blowing on the pen trying to get it to write. It finally let me get a drop on the queen. None of the bees were happy about the Empress’s new clothes.

They were all over me while I was trying to mark her. Luckily, none of them noticed my bare hands.

Did you know getting a newly dressed queen back into her queen box is not all that easy?

She fought the process. Hopefully I did not damage her or her lady parts. Also putting the marshmellow in the door is a treat.

Worker bees will try to eat said marshmellow regardless of where my fingers are.

I accomplished all this without being stung once. However, 2 bees followed me back to the house. I noticed them when I took my bee suit off.

I am a tad askeered the WW might not like this gals in her kitchen. But rest assured I am not going to tell her they are there. She will have to find out on her own.

 

[jerryse]

I bet those California bees wonder what is up with the weather .

 

[duluthralphie]

I bet those California bees wonder what is up with the weather .

I just went and looked at them. I saw some crawling around, but the package had more dead ones in the bottom than normal.

I am unhappy about this package. The bee in the queen cage did not look like a queen. She was really small. The plug in the queen cage was sideways and I think the real queen could have escaped and been killed or workers could have gotten in the cage to kill her.

There were some bees around the cage but that could have been residual pheromones. I won’t know for sure until I see eggs or lack off.

I doubt they will move much during the next couple days.