[Needo]

I have to say that starting new hives for the first time was an awesome experience. My kids were absolutely entranced by the bees. I did notice that the two hives had different personalities starting in the first 45 minutes. My west hive all filed into the hive in neat orderly lines and maintained a steady low hum. The east hive must be the special kids, because it took them longer to find their way in and their buzzing is a mixture of low hums punctuated with high pitched buzzes at sporadic intervals. They also seemed a little more aggressive as well. It may just be their lack of organization that I am seeing. I was interested to know if anyone else has had similar experiences.

 

[drlonzo]

What do you mean by "Shake" in your heading? Are you speaking of Shaking in packages? If so, yes they can have diff attitudes. Mine did. Some went in just fine, while others were down right mean to begin with. Got to remember the genetics of the bees you get are NOT those of the queen in the box.

 

[Needo]

I was shaking 4 lb packages. The funny thing is that the second package came out easier with less bees left over.

I don't know if that second hive was mean. They didn't sting. But they did seem awfully disorganized.

 

[drlonzo]

They can be that way sometimes. I hived 10, 3lb packs on april 6 this year and some were as dissorganized as could be. Some went in just as sweet and simple, but some stayed in the box and had to find their way out later. lol

 

[Needo]

Thanks for the reply here are some pictures of my good hive

 

[Needo]

I found the problem this morning with my west hive. I managed to import a black widow with the bricks I was setting the hives on. Two of the girls were already struggling in the web. I guess I would feel uncomfortable with a lion living under my front porch.

 

[Peace Lunasea]

I am so glad to hear that others have packages with noticeable personalities. My first package were as nice as nice can be while the second lot were very grumpy and uncooperative. A week later and they are still not happy.

At the risk of being ridiculous I had drawn a bee on the TBH that have the happy bees and a fleur De Lis on the grumpy hive. Therefore the Fleur De Lis hive are becoming Parisiene (before you criticize my stereotyping of Paris have you ever tried to find a cooperative Parisiene waiter?); this raises the question as to whether I'm spending too much time watching the hive and coming up with theories?

 

[Needo]

You're only spending too much time watching the bees if you don't get your other work done. I didn't realize that the girls would be that fascinating to watch. When the wind dies down, I am going to have a hard time pealing my self away to put on a sheet-metal roof on my house.

The difference between the two hives is becoming even more marked today.

 

[Needo]

To add insult to injury, thé wind just blew over my good hive. We set it back right and reinforced both hives. I'll have to see what happens in two days on the 3 day inspection.

 

[Needo]

I finally got a chance to look in on the girls. The queens are released and there are two bars of comb on my stinker hive. It looks like the wind victims are sitting a day behind on comb development. All the comb is straight so far. They haven't decided to expand their entrance yet. I used marshmallow to reduce the size of their entrance and let them decide when they need a larger entrance. The two hives together have nearly gone through a gallon of syrup. It has been so windy around here that the bees haven't been able to forge very much.

On the next inspection either Monday or Tuesday, I will look closer at the comb to make sure that my queens are laying. Right now there are more bees than comb. That makes it very difficult to see what is going on.