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Installing Bee Packages

3/27/2015

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Wednesday I picked up three new packages of bees. Each was a three pound package, with a queen. I photographed the steps of installing them into their new hives.
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This is what the packages look like when they arrive
Step 1: Prepare your hive boxes and stands. Remove one of the frames from the box. You will have 7 frames left for an 8 frame box and 9 for a 10 frame box. Have handy a small flat head screw driver, a hive tool, a thick rubber band, and wide wooden craft stick (or staple gun if you prefer). Install a plastic bottom closure if you use a screened bottom board. I also add a frame of honey if I have one and as many frames of drawn comb I can spare.

Step 2: Pry open the top of the package.

Step 3: While holding the package sideways over the hive, gently slide out the can of syrup.
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Step 2
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Step 3
Step 4: Gently remove the queen cage. Don't worry if some bees get out, they will find their way back.

Step 5: Gently brush off the bees from the cage and using the craft stick and rubber band, fashion a sling for the queen cage, to suspend it between two frames. Others prefer to use a staple gun to staple the cage to two frames, but I am too afraid I might injure the queen, so I use this method.
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Step 4
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Step 5
Step 6: VERY IMPORTANT! Remove the cork from the queen cage, on the side of the cage with the candy plug. Do not remove the other side or she will walk right out and may be killed. It takes a few days for the bees to eat through the candy plug to release her, at which time, they have accepted her as their queen. If you forget to remove the cork, she is trapped and cannot be set free.

Step 7: Place the queen cage between two center frames, with the mesh side facing down and slide the frames tight on either side of the cage.
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Step 6
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Step 7
Step 8: Pick up the open package of bees and bang it firmly, only once, on a solid surface. This will knock the bees loose, but will not hurt them. You may be surprised how well they hang on. Once loose, pour them into the hive, over the queen cage, and roll the package side to side to get as many out as possible. Don't worry if they don't all come out, just get most of them in the hive.


Step 9: Place the package with any remaining bees in front of the hive entrance.
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Step 8
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Step 9
Step 10: Give the bees a few minutes to move down into the hive and then place the inner cover carefully on top and then place the top on.

The bees will send out a pheromone to their sisters, fanning their butts in the air, to call them into the hive. If you watch for awhile, you will see the bees remaining in the package march right into the hive. I usually wait a day and then put in the entrance reducer.

Check that your queen has been released in three days. If she is still in her cage, open the other cork and let her walk into the entrance of the hive. Add the last frame into the hive and close it back up for at least a week for them to settle in.

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Painting with Pigs

3/19/2015

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A few weeks ago, we noticed that Boris (our boar) was starting to show a little bit too much interest in the two girls. We started working frantically to get the next pasture fenced in order to avoid the dreaded teen pregnancy situation. We worked through two weekends of rain and mud and Nick finally got the pig house finished last Sunday, while I had to work.

He is the builder and I am the painter. Since I got some extra time Tuesday, I decided to take advantage of the weather to paint the pig house. Since we had a tough time getting the boy and girls separated, I left the two girls in the pasture while I was trying to paint. I painted the top of the house figuring that by the time I got to where they could touch the wet paint, they would have lost interest in what I was doing and go off to root and graze. Wrong... the game began.

Every time Natasha would come over, I would try to chase her away, yelling "Shoo! Shoo!". She would prance off with her tail going behind her like a propeller, only to circle back around and tag the wet paint with her snout. Rocky took notice of this terrific game and decided that she needed to play too, only her participation involved adding butt prints in the wet paint.

I finally gave up with almost as much paint on the pigs as there was on the pig house. Despite their best effort, pigs are terrible painting assistants, but they have forever left their mark on their house.


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Bee Loss

3/14/2015

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We spent last week in Florida and missed what I hope is the last cold snap and snow of the season. This week has been very warm, up even into the 70s. I took advantage of the weather to inspect my hives for the first time this spring. Unfortunately, I found three of the six dead. I know that the last warm day before we left, there was activity at five of them, so I'm guessing they just couldn't tolerate one last freeze.

The loss is so heartbreaking for two reasons; one is that I lost all my new genetics from last year in two really strong hives and secondly, they starved despite having plenty of honey reserves. We harvested very modestly last year to make sure that we left the bees with plenty of honey in case it was a hard winter. So how did they starve? When is gets cold, the bees cluster together in a ball to ensure the queen and any larva stays a balmy 90+ degrees and will not break cluster until it is warm enough in the hive for them to move around and not risk her getting cold. The picture you see below is a frame with little bee butts sticking out, where they starved trying to get food from the bottom of the empty cells. If they had only been able to move less than an inch either way, there was plenty of capped honey for them.

Luckily, I have ordered three new packages of bees that should be arriving in a week or two. I was just hoping to get to ten hives by the end of this season and now that is very unlikely. It may take me an extra year to reach the goal, but I will carry on.
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    Ellie
    Resident beekeeper, gardener and farmer.

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