Bees Installation

Hi, this is my first beehive, and my first bees.  I have attended an excellent evening class and I am hoping that I can provide a good home for the bees whilst they save the human race from extinction, and perhaps, if I am lucky, they may have some honey to share with us. Please feel free to help with any advice, as I am by no means an expert and this is a blog about my experiences, good or bad, (although I may not boast about the bad) and I would welcome any mentoring given. 

Collected bees in a package and JP and I installed them on  2 May 2011.  Basically shook the worker girls  into the top bar and hooked the queen cage onto one of the bars.  The idea being that the bees got used to their new Australian Queen.  If she was released too early, they may kill her. We then moved onto the important task of naming her.  Regina, Edna and Elizabeth were all considered, but we didn't feel the appropriate love.

Next day I reopened the hive and undid the plastic cap on the Queen cage and hoped that the bees would eat through the candy and rescue her.  There was some cone around the cage which I cut off and attached a hair clip to and attached it to a top bar. A troubled sleep that night, I dropped her at one point, and the bees were really unhappy. My neighbours on either side both popped out, and then in again very swiftly.  They have been very supportive, I had anticipated them knocking at my door carrying pitch forks, and screaming swollen stung children, but they have been brilliant. And, touch wood, nobody has been stung so far. 

Before I got the bees I meticulously numbered all my bars with the intention of keeping them in order, but with all the excitement of the angry bees, while I fuffed around with their Queen, the bars were returned back in any order to minimize the disruptions. Can bees count, will the bee postman be confused?  I don't think they cared, they just wanted their lid back on. 

Day 3, I peeked into the observation window in the morning and the queen cage seemed to be on it own, and the bees were huddled elsewhere. I was worried that she had froze to death on her own, or had died when I dropped her, but by the time I returned in the evening the huddle had moved nearer the cage and the girls were bringing in pollen.  I felt a bit of relief, perhaps all was well.  After that, I  left them alone, apart from a quick peek in the observation window, and they have been mostly ignoring, us, including the dog, who insists that they do look tasty. They have been working very hard bringing in a mostly yellow pollen. 

JP and I got all togged up and inspected on 14 May 2011 and all is looking well.  First Top Bar out No18 and Queen Kylie was obvious from the outset.  What a beauty! We thought the Queen of Pop...ulation was an apt name. Unfortunately there were some casualties, the bees had clumped the brood onto 3 bars and I had to cut into the comb to lift them out.  On reflection, perhaps I should have just left it be, but I guess it would have only got worse.  Hopefully they will get into the swing of straight comb now.  Really surprised at how productive they have been.

Above is a brood comb I had to cut into to separate the combs, still not sure if I did right or not.  Hopefully, not too much damage.

Another bar, they have been busy filling, 

Quick summary so I can use this as my record a list of the worked top bars:

18 - Queen Kylie seen and on bar 18, with lots of cone, if I had my bee brush and had been more confident I could have checked out the egg and larvae situation!  

19 - small cone

16 - lots of cone

33 - lots of cone, and nectar, this was also the cone that I attached with the hair clip.  

17 - is definitely brood because I had to cut into it, (aww), to remove it and there were some beautiful C shaped larvae left on my hive tool. 

14 - lots of cone, and had the Queen cage dangling from it, which I think is what messed up their bee space and set them on their wiggly cone path causing my destruction of some brood comb. 

13- small amount of cone. 

As you can see from the pics, we had the full gear on, although, we regularly sit in the garden right outside the hive and watch them coming and going.  We have been very lucky, and we are all co-existing quite nicely. Bees, very politely, leave their hive and head up high away from neighbours.  Lets hope it remains that way.