Heath has kept bees since he was young and has a great fondness for them - one that only a beekeeper could have. Most people run scared when the see bees, but you can't keep Heath away from them. He actually subscribes to two separate beekeeping magazines and is a proud member of the Organic Beekeepers Association.
So after a long cold winter Heath couldn't wait to go and check on his hives. After inspecting his hives he noticed that one hive didn't make it through the winter. Heath was quite disappointed because he prides himself on never loosing hives. He immediately went on the hunt for cold-hardy bees to replace the hive that he lost and ordered a package of Carniolan Bees. A package of bees consists of about 10,000 bees from several different hives and a young queen bee placed in her own cage. We finally received our package of bees Saturday. So I thought it would be fun to share how you get 10,000 bees into one hive.
After cleaning out some of Heath's equipment, we set up the new hive in a sunny location.
Heath builds all of his own equipment out of used lumber that he finds or people give him.
After getting the hive body set up the way he wanted, Heath removed the syrup can and the queen cage from the package. The syrup provides food for the bees while they are being shipped.
There is the queen in her own private quarters. The cage is plugged with a small candy door which the worker bees will eat away in the next two to three days and release the queen into the hive. This queen is not in any way related to the bees in the package. Therefore, the candy plug allows the bees two to three days to get used to her and accept her as their own before she is released to the masses. If the queen was just dumped into the bees without the introduction period, she would most likely be killed by them.
The queen cage is suspended in the center of the hive where the rest of the bees can cluster around and attend to the queen's needs.
Then comes the fun part! Heath then shook the bees into the hive to be with their queen.
Then he began carefully placing the remaining frames into the hive.
Heath then closed up the hive to allow the bees to get settled in.
With the top on and the hive set up, the almost empty cage was placed in front of the hive to allow the stragglers to make their way into their new home.
Within just a few minutes, it was business as usual. And the bees were getting lined out in their new home. It was truly an amazing process. The bees were very calm and docile. Heath didn't even wear a veil, and the kids and I were right there next to him. It really only took about 10 minutes for the entire process. We love keeping bees, we get lots of delicious raw honey, they pollinate our flowers and garden, and provide much happiness for Heath.
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