My journey into the world of beekeeping has been interesting and informative. After my hive died of Parasitic Mite Syndrome in mid October I spent the winter hosting a Langstroth hive for a friend of mine. The plan was for me to take care of it, learn what I could in the process, and then split the hive come Spring. We had an unusually warm Winter and the plan was to see if we could split it at the end of March. Swarm season had started and this seemed doable……except the hive did not cooperate.
The queen was laying in erratic patterns. My mentor took the hive back to his house to see if he could make it work up there. I had ordered bees for my old Top Bar hive, but decided to use them in a Langstroth instead. I had ordered my bees from Honey Bee Genetics in Vacaville, CA. (You can find them here: http://www.honeybeegenetics.com). My pick up date was Saturday, April 25th.
I got up early and made the hour drive to Vacaville. Tom Parisian runs the place. I was there by 8:30.
Here are a few pictures.
Several 3 pound packages all set to go. |
| A three pound package like the one I purchased. All packages include a mated queen. |
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| Tom Parisian explaining how to add a bee package to your hive.
I transferred the package into my new Langstroth hive the next day. Here are two videos on the process.
Video 1: Getting ready to insert the package of bees
Video 2: Hooking up the Queen Cage. The workers will release her by eating the candy plug.
Video 3: Closed up with a feeder can on top. I enclosed that by putting an empty medium hive box over it followed by the outer cover.
 "And awaaaaaaay we go!" - Jackie Gleason |
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