First time ever in eighteen years of beekeeping. So here's the haps... Sunny, 65f, not too breezy and just generally a beatuiful day in spring. This was a 3lb package that had been housed together for at least four days. When I pulled the queen cage there was no "ill" behavior towards her, no biting or posturing, just gentle bees crawling across the screen. The hive body had old (3 yrs+-) drawn foundation with freshly scratched honey plus a few new frames for them to draw on. I took out the middle five frames, dumped in the package then took the queen cage, pryed the screen back, and reached down into the hive body and watched her climb out. She took flight and did a tight circle then landed on the hive body and toppled into the mass. She was in there. I put the difference of frames into the body and juxtaposed the inner cover on top and gave them the rest of te sugar water. Everything seemed fine, bees out front fanning, nothing too special. After about an hour I closed it up and walked away. As this was (is) an outyard I came back in a week and NOBODY home, just few big black ants (75-100ish). Not too many ants that I would think would cause them to abscond.
All other packages installed in this fashon went fine.
These were Italians.
Thoughts? Experiences?
All other packages installed in this fashon went fine.
These were Italians.
Thoughts? Experiences?