April 11, 2018

Yesterday, I hived the last package of bees into the Langstroth hive. Earlier I had a first of hiving bees while snow was still on the ground. Today, I had the first of hiving bees while it was snowing. Light flurries, but still snow.

The hiving started out ok. I was determined to utilize the full functionality of the Beebus cage, and open the end. With it being so cold, perhaps the plastic was too stiff, but I could not get the tabs out of the slots. So, I had to shake them out. I had a small tripod camera set up to capture the bees “raining” into the hive, and that shot was fantastic… for about a second. Then, the camera fell over...on the bees… who were a little put out about moving from California to Minnesota while it was still winter. The camera smashing down on them did not ease their spirits. They let me know that too. A couple stings to the back of my head.

I got most of the bees out of the cage, and then I had to put in the queen. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the queen cage. It was empty. I panicked. Then, I remembered that I had not cleared out my pocket from yesterday. I pulled out another queen cage. It also was empty. I reached in, and did not feel another queen cage. However, I could feel one in my pocket from the outside of my jacket.
So, finally I got it out. Now, this is taking much longer than it should. The bees, still missing the California sunshine, decided to tell me to speed this up. They let me know with a couple more stings to the back of my head.

I uncorked the queen cage, and placed it on a frame that had drawn comb on it. I normally do not do a direct release, because I want to be sure the bees have accepted the queen as their own. But, with the cold weather, it was better to direct release. I put her cage onto the honeycomb. She paced back and forth, then finally walked out onto the comb. I reach over to put in a frame into the hive, and I see she is now flying, in the hive...then out of the hive. Really? Acting quick, I blocked her flight with the frame I had, she landed on it, and I placed that into the hive. I quickly buttoned everything up, and called it a day.

Murphy’s Law in action.

Thanks for reading along.