From: pastorgene@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 13:08:21 -0000
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Adjusting to 49ers

Friday the 5th I hived 3 packages of 49ers. They have been working
furiously. I did have one hive, the one with the strongest package,
do something unexpected. The hive had a constant swarm of bees flying
around it, but not a bee coming or going from the entrance for two
days. They also were not taking any feed from the boardman feeder.
There were bees all over the hive box, especially around the top. I
use fiberglass hive tops and found that the bees were using a small
vent hole in the top to come and go. This hole was too small for my
Italians to pass through, but the 49ers went through quite easily. I
have screened them over and the bees are beginning to use the
entrance and take a lot of food from the boardman. Makes me wonder if
my wire queen excluder is doing anythig other than just taking up
space, especially when the queen first comes out of the cage.

Gene