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Hived 3 packages

2K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  MIKI 
#1 ·
Hey all,
I hived 3 packages yesterday and only got stung 3 three times. I think I may have made a mistake with one queen they came in yellow cages with a plastic piece protecting the candy. While I was driving away from the yard it hit me! Did I remove the plastic from the last one? I am pretty sure that I did not. The bees were in the package for 2 days before I could get them into the hive and man were they mad!
I sprayed them down with a 1:1 mix of sugar water and tried not to use any smoke. !st bad experience; I pulled the queen out and the piece of wood she was hanging from was not conducive to a topbar I had to re-rig the cage to hang from a bar. I put her between #4 and #5. Now bad experience #2 short sleeves (DUH) bad idea!, pulled the feeder can out and all hell broke loose. Real quick I flipped it over and shook it, half the bees came out. put the pkg. on the ground in front of the hive and moved to #2 this time with a long sleeve jacket! same scenario. went back to #1 the bees won't leave the pkg. got bees on the landing board sending out the message, picked up the pkg shook the remaning bees out on the ground and the march started. back to #2 same scenario. At #3 I was pretty much done so I smoked them things went smoother; however in my rush this is the hive i screwed up the queen cage on.
Question: Should I fix this right away or wait a couple of days and free her myself?
Any other advise besides slow down?
MIKI
 
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#4 ·
You don't need to wear protective gear. Just have respect for the bees, knowing they are going to pour out of the package as soon as they can. I slid the cover back and forth not letting out any bees when I removed the queen and feed can from my packages.

I hung the queen, taking my time because I didnt' have any bees after me at all this way. Then I placed the packages as a whole inside the hives, and opened the packages inside the hives and covered the hives. Came back next day to remove empty packages.

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Scot Mc Pherson
Foundationless Small Cell Top Bar Hives
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