Description
A package of honey bees is considered an artificial swarm. This new colony, like a swarm, will grow quickly. They can make a good start with your assistance. Providing drawn comb is best, but new beekeepers without comb needn’t fret. A new colony is programmed to make lots of comb quickly; in fact, their survival depends on it.
FEEDING:
Make sure they have lots of sugar syrup placed where they can get at it and pollen substitutes when they need it. Spring nectar is very watery, as much as 70% to 80% water. Thin syrup encourages young bees with active wax glands to produce wax. A spring syrup mix of 1 to 1 water to sugar is perfect. In spring when the weather can change often, it is better to have the syrup located above the cluster. The heat from your cluster on cold nights will rise, making it much easier for them to work the syrup even on those cold rainy days and nights.
QUEENS:
The bees in your package were removed from a nice cozy colony containing lovely smells of their mother. They are now adjusting to her dwindling scent and beginning to experience the new smells from another. This process will usually takes 4 days to unfold. After 4 days, you can be confident the colony has distributed the pheromones of your new queen, making it safe for them or you to release her. 5% to 10% of the hives in a apiary will have a second queen. Your package could be from one of those hives. If there is already a queen among the package bees, those bees will kill your new queen, or worse, the 2 queens will kill each other after the release. If the bees haven’t released your queen in the previous 4 days and you want to see if you have another queen before releasing her, you can do like we do at City Bee Savers. Place the queen box with the new queen on top of the frames and off to the side. Watch how the bees respond to her. Be patient – it may take 5 to 10 minutes of observation. It may also only take a few seconds. It will be clear if the bees are hostile to your new queen. Hostile bees quickly and tightly gather on the screen of the queen cage, many trying to sting her. Don’t let the quickly gathering bees fool you. Bees eager to assist a new queen will also quickly gather to the queen box, but their behavior is more gentle and loving. You will see them trying to lick or feed the new queen.
BRING BEES HOME: Car
Some packages will have hitchhikers! This is normal – no need to worry, bees in your car will not want to sting you. However, not everyone, especially a new beekeeper, is comfortable with loose bees in the car. If this is the case, please ask us during package pick-up to help you remove those hitchhikers before placing the package(s) in your car. It’s a good idea to place a towel over the package during transportation, but make sure they have plenty of ventilation. Also have a means to keep the packages from tipping over and spilling syrup on the bees. We DON’T recommend transporting bees in the trunk. A trunk can heat up quickly without your knowledge. Bees will perish very quickly in a hot trunk. Even if it’s cold outside, be prepared to have your air conditioner running while you bring them home. They need to cluster. Heat will cause lots of stress and shorten their lives.
BRING BEES HOME: Truck
Make sure you bring something to keep them from sliding around the truck bed and covered during transport. Even if it is very cold, outside make sure they have ventilation when covered.
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