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Well, received my two packages yesterday and by the time I got home, realized that one of the packages had a hole in it and about a hundred of the bees had escaped in the van with me. That situation did not bother me too much, except I had to install that package sooner than I wanted to in the day. Got them installed around 1 and the other a few hours later.
Here are the problems...
1. The queens in each package looked great. I could not however remove the cork that closed the cage, so I pushed it in assuming the queen could get around it. Bad idea? How long should I leave the bees to figure it out on their own?
2. On the advice of the guy who gave the bee class 101, I bought those feeder plugs from Betterbee.com to make top feeder buckets. They both seem to be leaking, one much worse than the other. The hive that has the leakiest bucket seems to have mostly moved in with the first package. Meaning both hives have a queen. The hive with the least leaky feeder bucket has almost all of the workers from both packages. The hive with the leakiest bucket has a few hundred bees that are clustered around the queen cage. I removed this bucket and put a chicken feeder with syrup at the entrance and rocks in the rim to prevent drowning.
Don't know if this matters but...I ordered one package of Italians and one package of Carniolans. For some reason the package of Corniolans did not come in, but Carniolan queens did. So, my bee guy put in a Carniolan queen in with my Italian bees a mere 6 hours before the installation. This is also the hive with only a few hundred bees with the queen.
So, what should I do? I want more workers with the Carniolan queen to ensure her and the colony's survival. Can I shake some bees from one hive to another? Is a constant syrup drip going to mess things up more than they are? Also, in a day or so the temps are supposed to drop to 40's by day and 20's by night.
Here are the problems...
1. The queens in each package looked great. I could not however remove the cork that closed the cage, so I pushed it in assuming the queen could get around it. Bad idea? How long should I leave the bees to figure it out on their own?
2. On the advice of the guy who gave the bee class 101, I bought those feeder plugs from Betterbee.com to make top feeder buckets. They both seem to be leaking, one much worse than the other. The hive that has the leakiest bucket seems to have mostly moved in with the first package. Meaning both hives have a queen. The hive with the least leaky feeder bucket has almost all of the workers from both packages. The hive with the leakiest bucket has a few hundred bees that are clustered around the queen cage. I removed this bucket and put a chicken feeder with syrup at the entrance and rocks in the rim to prevent drowning.
Don't know if this matters but...I ordered one package of Italians and one package of Carniolans. For some reason the package of Corniolans did not come in, but Carniolan queens did. So, my bee guy put in a Carniolan queen in with my Italian bees a mere 6 hours before the installation. This is also the hive with only a few hundred bees with the queen.
So, what should I do? I want more workers with the Carniolan queen to ensure her and the colony's survival. Can I shake some bees from one hive to another? Is a constant syrup drip going to mess things up more than they are? Also, in a day or so the temps are supposed to drop to 40's by day and 20's by night.