The day after I picked up the bee package I was able to “installed” them into their new hive. To figure out how I was suppose to get 10,000 bees and a queen into the hive, I watched a bunch of youtube videos. What I learned from all of these videos was that there really isn’t an eloquent way to do it. I am also realizing that the bees know what they are doing and that I am the amateur in this play.
I started biking to work this week which is an entirely separate and equally treacherous en devour. When I got home I wanted to get the bees in the hive before the sun went down. My thighs were shaking from all of the huffing and puffing it takes to get over the Manhattan bridge and my stomach was growling for dinner. Anyone who has ever seen me when I am hungry (or tired) knows what a gremlin I can be. Obviously this wasn’t the most ideal opportunity to release bees that have been caged for three days. We did it anyway.
At first, Mike and I couldn’t find the full bee jacket so I just put on a veil and some rubber gloves. I guess it has been a while since I’ve been around bees because I was very skittish about the whole thing. The first thing I had to do was to take out the can of sugar syrup. A few bees got out in the process but that was ok. The next thing was to get the queen cage out. It was hanging by a white tab and should have been easy to get out. I had it in my hand and then I dropped it. Into the box of 10,000 bees. Bees that have been contained for days. I like to think that I am not afraid but I couldn’t stick my hand in and get it out. That’s when we started to panic.
I decided that I was just going to continue on without having the queen cage removed and dump them in. A good majority of them came out on the first try. I was able to find the queen. We had to take out the wooden plug from one end of the queen’s cage. However, when Mike tried to do it he pushed it in. The possibility of loosing the queen was high but I think we got her in safe. I put the frames back into the hive and closed the lid.
I will do my first hive inspection in about a week to make sure that we still have a queen and that she has started to do her job.