a few notes:
1. nothing really prepared me for the roar that they let out when you first dump them in the hive. my mind completely froze up and I forgot what to do next. I think I just stared at them for 15 seconds.
2. my bee supplier sold me some drawn comb to put in for starter. I think that was a brilliant idea. otherwise I’m foundationless. they immediately found the comb and started working it while I was messing with the queen cage. there was a little honey and pollen in there.
3. I had a whole mental plan about how to thumbtack the strap to the side of a wooden queen cage to suspend it. but inside the package was a tiny J-Z B-Z cage, and I had no idea how to do it. I eventually had my wife run get some rubber bands, and I made a sling for the cage out of those. this was also the point where I got frustrated with the heavy beekeepers gloves I bought, and found some cotton work gloves. they don’t cover my wrists, so I’ll need to find an alternate.
4. the amount of yellow bee poop all over everything was amazing. my roof, our suits, covered in bright yellow dots. they were sending us a message.
5. if I’d had the smoker lit, I would have used it. the bees kept crawling up to places where I was putting frames in or putting the cover on. there was carnage no matter how slow I tried to move. I could have smoked them down and out of the way, but I appreciated how active and exploring they were without it. we might have lost dozens of bees, but hopefully better for their smellers as they set up home. so maybe good that I didn’t have the smoker.
6. it also rained about a half-hour after I got their covers closed. there were some dozens more dead bees on the roof later when I went back to check on them. disoriented stragglers and a few that never made it out of the package, I think. I felt bad for them, but overall a great day!