Welcoming the girls

A week ago, April 14, I picked up my bees, affectionately called, "the girls" (apologies to the drones in the hive--the few hundred males whose only lot in life is to mate).

My brother-in-law and I left in the early morning to drive 25 miles north to the small town of Waldo, OH, where we were to pick up the hive from George Taylor of Waldo Apiaries. George and a band of six men were unloading hundreds of bee packages from a livestock trailer which they had hauled up from Georgia overnight.

We picked up the package of bees, estimated 10,000-12,000, and their new queen and carefully set them in the car. The bees were quiet, as it was early and the temperature was cool. I kept the package in the garage for the day, as I had been instructed. Opportunity for the bees to acclimate. As the day progressed so did their activity. Clinging onto each other they formed a single body of bees and kept up a constant buzzing chorus as the day progressed.



At 4:00 in the afternoon, as had been scheduled, my sister and brother-in-law came over to help "hive" the bees. I admit to being excited. I had read numerous articles and watched scads of videos about hiving. While there are slight differences in techniques, the basics steps are--

1. spritz the bees with sugar water
2. remove one or two frames in the hive
3. remove the top and the can of sugar water from the package
4. pull out the queen
5. dump in the bees
6. place the queen
7. close up 

 This "hiving" was a bit of a community event as Dad and my neighbor Geri watched.

Rosie and Abby, the chickens, kept an eye on the activities, curious about their new neighbors.