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6 Posts
Hi All,
Rookie here. This is my first attempt. Read some books, attended a class, and I was extremely comfortable installing my first package. Until today that is. I decided to use the "Hansen Method" I learned from our class. On Wed, I Picked up the bees, they seemed calm, not many dead bees on the bottom. Left them in a cool, dark garage for a few hours spraying the screen with some sugar syrup which they accepted happily. Removed the Queen Cage, uncorked it and made a small hole in the sugar plug to aid her release. positioned her, sugar plug up on the 4th frame of a 10-frame deep (#2). Dumped about 1 cup full of bees from the package on that frame. All ten frames are in deep #2. Placed the remaining bees still in the package in an empty deep below (#1) which is resting on the bottom board (screened). I'm using a hive top feeder with 1:1 sugar syrup and HBH above deep #2.
Supposedly I'd come back 24 hours to remove Deep #1 along with an empty package. Wrong. The vast majority of the ladies seemed perfectly content in their package, the majority of them still clustered together - still calm. So I just put them back hoping I'd come back tomorrow and they'd decided to leave by then. Additionally, I lifted the outer cover ever so slightly to see that there were bees sipping out of the hive top feeder, but I didn't bother them any further.
As far as weather: It has been dark and dreary all day today with light rain (Thurs) w/temps around 60, not expected to fall below 50 or so tonight. Tomorrow's weather (Fri) is more of the same with a warm-up on Saturday with T-storms. I expect not many bees will want to venture out, and maybe this is aiding in their laziness...
What happens if I go back tomorrow and they still have not left the package box? I thought of a few options:
1. Dump remaining package in empty deep #1 (onto the screened bottom board) and cover with #2 (10-frame deep w/queen on 4th frame) and HT Feeder?
2. Totally remove #1 with the remaining bees in package (#2 now is now at the bottom) and dump remaining bees in #2. But if I do this, should I remove some frames or can I leave all 10 in?
3. Wait another day?
4. Other?
Some advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
John
Rookie here. This is my first attempt. Read some books, attended a class, and I was extremely comfortable installing my first package. Until today that is. I decided to use the "Hansen Method" I learned from our class. On Wed, I Picked up the bees, they seemed calm, not many dead bees on the bottom. Left them in a cool, dark garage for a few hours spraying the screen with some sugar syrup which they accepted happily. Removed the Queen Cage, uncorked it and made a small hole in the sugar plug to aid her release. positioned her, sugar plug up on the 4th frame of a 10-frame deep (#2). Dumped about 1 cup full of bees from the package on that frame. All ten frames are in deep #2. Placed the remaining bees still in the package in an empty deep below (#1) which is resting on the bottom board (screened). I'm using a hive top feeder with 1:1 sugar syrup and HBH above deep #2.
Supposedly I'd come back 24 hours to remove Deep #1 along with an empty package. Wrong. The vast majority of the ladies seemed perfectly content in their package, the majority of them still clustered together - still calm. So I just put them back hoping I'd come back tomorrow and they'd decided to leave by then. Additionally, I lifted the outer cover ever so slightly to see that there were bees sipping out of the hive top feeder, but I didn't bother them any further.
As far as weather: It has been dark and dreary all day today with light rain (Thurs) w/temps around 60, not expected to fall below 50 or so tonight. Tomorrow's weather (Fri) is more of the same with a warm-up on Saturday with T-storms. I expect not many bees will want to venture out, and maybe this is aiding in their laziness...
What happens if I go back tomorrow and they still have not left the package box? I thought of a few options:
1. Dump remaining package in empty deep #1 (onto the screened bottom board) and cover with #2 (10-frame deep w/queen on 4th frame) and HT Feeder?
2. Totally remove #1 with the remaining bees in package (#2 now is now at the bottom) and dump remaining bees in #2. But if I do this, should I remove some frames or can I leave all 10 in?
3. Wait another day?
4. Other?
Some advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
John