[Curt732]

Very new .... No bees yet.

The evening of the 6th My cousin called and said a swarm had attached to the eave boards of her home. I had very little idea as to what I was doing other than what I have read. I grabbed my stuff and a ladder and rushed over to see if I could figure out what to do. Upon arrival it looked like a no brainer. I climbed up and scraped those little beauties into an ice chest. WOW !!! That was easy, I packed up and went home. I set the ice chest out to rest a while after the drive home. I set up a hive (my first one ) and proceeded to dump the contents of the ice chest into the hive. (I'm still guessing as to just exactly what to do). As soon as they hit the bottom of the hive they began to crawl out and over the edge. I quickly replaced the frames I had removed and closed up the hive. I put out an entry feeder with 1:1 syrup.

About mid day the 7th this is what I saw.

I suspect the queen crawled out the evening before and she is in the middle of all that. They are eating about 2/3 of a quart a day of the syrup.

All day today I snuck back to see what was going on. It's dark now and they are still there. This will be the third night in my bee yard but the second night in that swarm attachment...

What's going on??? I need some guidance.

 

[Curt732]

It's a cold (42 F) and rainy afternoon of the 9th.

I wedged the top open a bit late last night. They haven't budged a single bee. I probably would have turned the hive 180 degrees but I didn't get that post until this morning. I may still do that this evening.

Everything looks exactly the same.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 63 F. Maybe that will help them out a bit.

Can you sense my discouragement

Curt :s

 

[Curt732]

Feb 10. 10:29 am Day 4...

It froze last night and my bees were still attached to the outside of my hive box. I was afraid they had perished in the night. It’s supposed to warm to 63 F today.

I couldn’t stand it any longer. Each day I was watching the pile of dead bees grow at the bottom of the attachment. The wife and I decided to remove the top try to gather/sweep them into the hive. I sincerely think it worked. There were already a few bees inside the box but the large majority was still clinging to the outside/back of the box... Gather and dump. Gather and dump. They really were not difficult to handle. We managed to get most ( 90% ) of them in the hive and the rest seemed either dead or frozen stiff or in flight..

This has been my first personal, live bee experience. Thank you for your help.

Curt