Girls on the bus, are you ready for this?

Like many beekeepers, our colony did not make it through winter. So this spring I ordered three new packages of bees. Mid April, they arrived in these new "buses". The plastic cages you see here. I was hoping they would be easier that the wooden ones but more on that later.

When the packages arrived, I was home with both the kids. The bees had already been in their bus for a week. I decided I could not wait for my husband to get home that night. It would end up being too late in the day. So I asked the kids to play nice and not scream or interrupt me so I could concentrate... lol.  Well, I think you know where this story is going.

The steps to install the bees into a hive from the new busses is slightly different from what I did previously. After watching the video of how the new busses work I was hoping for the best. I knew it would be a bit tricky with my recent surgery. My hands are both pretty weak.

First package, I was able to get my first queen cage out and put her in my pocket fairly easily.  I sprayed the bus with sugar water really good to wet the bees. It took a lot more work to open the end of the bus with my hive tool than it did with the old wooden cages. Finally I got it open and I dumped the bees into their new home. I instantly started to curse under my breath (and I do not curse). The new buses plastic cages really did not allow the sugar water to penetrate on to the bees. So when I dumped them into the hive, they did not stay there. They were flying everywhere. Then to add to my frustration, I realized I forgot to remove the cork from the queen cage and replace it with a marshmallow. This was suppose to be BEFORE I dumped the bees! Now not only did I have thousands of bees flying all over, I also had to somehow calmly but quickly get the queen in there with them.

Keep in mind, my kids are SCREAMING at eachother less than 50 feet away and I am trying my best to concentrate.

Frustrated, I was able to get the cork out and was covering the hole with my glove. I realized that my finger was not all the way over the hole. The gloves are longer than my finger. So I turned my wrist to pull the glove down a little. When I turned my wrist back to look at the queen and put in the marshmellow, she was gone. She had snuck past my gloved finger. I looked all over my arm and my body thinking maybe she was crawling on me. Nothing. What a great start.

I could not find her anywhere. I placed the cage in the hive and closed it up hoping she had flew in or would fly back. The kids were still fighting like rabid dogs in the background (ok, it was probably not that bad but really when you are trying to concentrate it seems like it). My heart sank. I still had two more packages to install. There was no one else who could do this, I needed to keep going.

I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer and started to work on my second package. The second and third went very smoothly. It was still hard to open the buses with the hive tool (aka small crowbar). The thickness of the plastic cages blocking the sugar water was still a problem. I sprayed a ton so they were flying less but still more than normal.

Most importantly, I decided to remove my gloves to work with the other two queens.  This allowed me to work with them more easily. I also stepped away from the hives about 20 feet while doing it. I did not have bees hovering around me. I took my time. I talked to each queen about her new home. I welcomed her. I found this little one on one time with the queen to be very peaceful and calming.

I was able to finish the last two hives with the queens (and most the bees) safely in their new homes. The kids were now playing peacefully in the backyard. With much hope for my girls (and my possibly AWOL queen) I went to the house to make dinner...

Stay tuned for more on happenings with the girls.
Blessings!

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