I am getting two packages this coming Thursday but won't get them home until about 6:00 or 6:30 pm. Sunset here is 7:50, followed by 30 minutes of twilight. Is there a time when it is too late in the day to install them? If I have to wait until Friday, is there an optimal time of day for...

Last year we got a few 3# packages from down south and installed them on frames from deadout hives. We anticipated that this approach (rather than starting them on foundation) would give the bees a head start on getting established. These packages unfortunately introduced us to small hive...

A newbie here... I'm getting my first package in a few weeks. The plan is to install it and leave it for 3-5 days before checking if the queen was released and accepted. My question is how much food should I leave for the bees during that period. I'm planning on using 1:1 sugar nectar to feed...

Hi, I'm brand new to beekeeping and I plan to install package bees in a TBH in the next few weeks. Being brand new to beekeeping I had a few questions that I could not find answers to on the 1. How much space in TBH should I make available for the bees to live in when I install them (how many...

We're new beeks and we installed our very first two packages (Carniolans from NZ) on Tuesday evening. The weather was good then but was a bit cold. The weather has not been nice bee weather at all. Yesterday was about 10C then down to 7C at night. Today is 10C and rain. Tomorrow looks good...

Hello Marcy from Maine here reporting in. I am so excited. Once again all my colonies made it through winter and this was CRAZY winter here in Maine. No winter losses and so I continue with my natural bee keeping approach. I did lose one hive due to queenlessness (likely not an actual word)...

The weather has been great here until last night when it dropped to 32F. Imagine that, we were to pick up our package today. By the time we got to the pick up site, it had warmed to 39F. The bees were huddled really tight in the package. By the time our 2 hour drive home in the car was done they...

Hello Finally we are coming out of our winter here in the Brunswick Maine coastal area. My bees seem to have survived. I have been regressing and headed toward Michael Bush's program of natural beekeeping. I did suffer one hive loss late last year due to mites and may have to FMGO the other...

I installed a package for the first time 3 days ago. When i looked in the queen cage the queen was curled up but was moving, I installed figuring they might be feeding her or something. I came back 2 days later and the queen was dead and not released yet. i brought the queen cage inside and...