[arcatamarcia]

I installed my first two packages of bees yesterday. It was cool (50 degrees) and rainy, but since that's the forecast for the next week I went ahead and installed them using a "rainy day" method I was taught, where instead of shaking the bees into the lower box, I just laid the open package box onto the top bars. I took the queen cage out first and placed it also on the top bars, and then I added a quart jar of syrup and closed it all up with an empty super and migratory cover.

I checked this morning (still cool and rainy) by just lifting a corner of the cover. If it looked good I was hoping to be able to remove the package box and add another jar of syrup. What I found was all the bees clustered around the feeder on top and hanging from the bottom of the migratory cover. Not wanting to expose them to the cool air and rain, I just closed it right back up.

I'm wondering what I should do to encourage them to move down into the lower box with the frames on it. If there's the slightest break in the rain today I will have to open the top box long enough to check the feeder and try to add another one. Should I try to brush the cluster off the cover when I do that, or should I leave them on it and just move them carefully. I could even have my husband just hold the cover with the bees still on it over the hive.

I'm so afraid I've made a mess of it right from the get go. Any advice to redeem this situation would be appreciated.

 

[J&J]

Shake them out of the package box and off the top and on the frames asap...you don't want them to start building comb where they are at or you will have a mess.

 

[drobbins]

do what J&J said
that weather is ok, just feed them till it gets better
a bunch of natural comb in that empty box will be a mess to clean up

Dave

 

[odfrank]

Never leave an empty box above a newly hived swarm or package. Clustering at the top and building comb down is a few hundred million year old behavior. The topbars must be the top.

 

[StevenG]

I hived a package much as you, and sure enough, the bees built comb from the inner cover down, didn't move into the frames. had brood in those combs too, a big mess. Do as advised, get the shipping package out, and remove the spare box, and soon.