New Bees

Hubby ended up loosing about 1/2 our hives over the winter. When he picked up the new bees he found he wasn't alone in that.

Many beekeepers in our area lost at least half of their hives. One man we know lost all of his.

And sadly, the paint Hubby ordered didn't come in, so the hives didn't get painted before the bees had to be installed. It was a special insulating paint that he wanted to try to see if it would help keep the hive cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

We'll be trading out boxes throughout the summer and painting them, then re-installing them when the paint has cured enough.

Here's a good PDF resource for installing package bees.

The location of the new hive is on the south-east side of the new shed.

Hubby decided to use some of the old frames with honey on them from one of the old hives. He thought that would be a better start for the bees than sugar water.

Can you see the new hive top? It's a copper top! I love it!

The directions on installing a new package of bees usually says to let the bees stay in the box overnight and install them the next day. After talking with another beekeeper-friend, Hubby decided to install them all the same day he picked them up, just like our beekeeper-friend does.

It was nice to do it on a Saturday instead of a Sunday.

All in all, Hubby installed 5 new packages of bees last Saturday. Hopefully they will all like their new homes.

And make us alot of honey this year!