THE BEES ARE HERE!

So the bees were supposed to be here Friday... guess I posted that, but they emailed and told us they were to be mailed on Tuesday (arrival for Wednesday).  Tuesday morning at 6am Mike got an email that said the bees were shipped.  They were coming from Utah UPS.  We discussed how odd it was that they could have been shipped so early in the morning, but Mike was sure they had just sent the email, and indicated that they were mailed Tuesday morning.  So he went off to Salida to pick up some fencing supplies and then wanted to fish... The Arkansas river, two miles from our house claims one of the nations most prolific caddis fly hatches, and we have missed it for the last three years since we have lived here.  He is determined to hit it this year.

Well, I'm sure you are ahead of me already.. The bees showed up around 10 am Tuesday.  I called Mike and although I could not reach him, he did get the message just as he hit the river.   He was not happy as his fishing was spoiled, and secondarily, although we have been planning and waiting for a year we were not totally prepared, we still had to level the Warre Hive, and put spacers between the top bars.

We bought 3 colonies, two for us, and one for Marvin and Paula, friends in town.  The plan was Marvin wanted to come watch the bee installation and then we would all go to Marvin's house and install his.  He was to bring the marshmallows.  You are supposed to uncork the queen cage replacing that with a marshmallow, then the queen can eat herself out within the next few days and by then she is accepted by the colony.  Well Marvin was out hiking with the hiking club, and couldn't be reached.  Mike wanted to get the bees in as quickly as possible.  After we got the hive settled we took the bars off holding the 3 packages together.  That's when is all fell apart.. literally.  One of the packages broke open, still on the porch.  Bees started pouring out.  We grabbed a plastic bag and put the box in there, but bees were flying everywhere.  If we hadn't panicked we would have realized the queen was still in the cage, and the bees were not going to go anywhere.  But we did.  Stress was high, and we didn't have any marshmallows.  We in fact had no candy of any sort... We briefly discussed making a sugar paste, so I went in to do that.  I ended up making it way too thin, runny, and decided maybe craisins would work, especially if we used the paste to glue them in place.  So I headed out.

Mike didn't think the bees would eat craisins and thought that was a bad idea, so we proceeded with the paste, which was the consistency of syrup and was obviously not going to work!  I headed back to the house to dump a bunch more sugar in, and Mike was yelling at me to hurry up, and thus in my haste I dumped the sugar in and kneading it, headed back down.  But by the time I got back to the hive, the water had absorbed and the paste was still too runny.  We opened the cage and shoved a bunch in, put the queen in the hive and put the plastic bag with the bees over the hive, and left it.  We fully expected the sugar to "run" out, the queen to get out way too early, the bees to kill her, and then be on there way to find another queen..  Feel sick and helpless we gathered our whits about us before going to the next hive.

This time we took our time and make a much better paste..  This time we were not at each others throats.  This time it seemed to go like bookwork.  This time I got some pictures!  Then we went off to take Marvin's bees to him and get them settled in his hive.

Moments before the tragedy!

This is the package..  The inset can has food for the bees, 

the tab to the right is attached to the queen cage.  

You pull out the food, slide the queen cage down the slot to the opening, then put the can back.

Our Queen!

10,000 bees

Our Warre Hive with a bag overtop!

All closed up and ready to start makin' honey!

Bees at the Warre Hive.

Signs of life.

Marvin got the whole suit... Now how does this go??

The excited beekeepeers

Marvin's Queen

Dumping the bees in.

Paula cautiously watches from a distance!

(Ben is fearless)

That evening I went out to check on the hive and saw no signs of life..  I worried all night and slept poorly, and went out first thing in the morning.  Still no sign of bees, and no buzzing!  I looked in the window and saw a lot of dead bees, and no live ones.  I felt sick, I was sure they all died or left.  I came back and told Mike, and we both were very bummed out about it.  We thought our bee adventure was over.. three strikes and you are out.  About 11 am Mike went back out to the hives.. and there were bees buzzing about!  Yes we had a lot of casualties but the bees were still there and working!  I had just been out too early in the morning and it was cold.  I would have thought they would make noise, but no..  So now, Thursday, they have eaten one quart jar of food and seem to be quite active.. during the warmth of the day....  Whew, we are breathing a little easier!  Now we are supposed to stay away, and not bother them for a week or so, other than checking on their food.  The Warre hive isn't eating their food as fast, and not sure what is going on there, but in the heat of the day the bees are coming and going in that hive too, so for now our hopes are high again.

Warre Hive

Well, the bees were supposed to come today, but alas one more delay.  This morning they told us they will be mailed on the 19.. so three more days.  So close we can taste honey!  So of course I will be documenting the event in photos, and since I still haven't told you much about the Warre hive, I'll dedicate this blog to that topic.  First I guess I should explain that after our failure to get bees last year, we are ordering 2 colonies instead of one, therefore we needed another hive.  We decided to try the other kind just to see which one we liked better.


The Warre hive is also a top bar hive, meaning no frames.  We got plans for this hive online also, so built it to spec, but this hive is vertical, rather than horizontal like the other one, so has more in common with traditional Langstroth hives.  The bottom box is the brood box, the next box up is for the bee honey stores.  Then the top two will be for harvesting.  And finally a roof for the hive.  We can make more if that is necessary.

I post a few more photos so you can get the idea..

We also got chickens last Friday, boy they are growing fast.  No coop yet, but I'm keeping the discussion of our chicken adventures over on our Alpaca blog.. so many blogs, so little time!