Episode-239- The Easiest Way To Install Bees Into A top Bar Hive

I begin this video with the actual installation of the honey bees. With I hope to show you Easiest Way To Install Bees Into A top Bar Hive. I am also careful and cautious about their condition. The video will show the importance of having respect for animals. They have just traveled 650 miles from the Walter T. Kelley Bee Company in Clarkson, Kentucky. They rode on trucks, mail cars and my car. I am fortunate to have a wife who has picked up bee packages from the post office for the past three years. They have sat in the garage all afternoon where they kept cool. A few stragglers were hanging on the outside of the package and that’s typical.

I opted not to spray them with sugar water contrary to regular advice. Instead I placed them outside in the back where they will live and let them get a little used to their new refuge. At least I hope that’s what it becomes. From the beginning of the installation the bees you will see were quite active. Even though I dusted the package with powdered sugar before installing. The little white puff balls were everywhere. That is why I am glad I had on a veil and gloves. I didn’t want to make them all sticky. Not only is hard for them to defend their new hive but they become even tastier morsels for the birds in the yard if they are coated with nutrients and sugar.

At first I thought about going veil-less and glove-less. Common sense prevailed and veil was used and the gloves after I started to open the package. The bees were feisty, tired and hungry. They have to become workers for their new queen, find their pollen and nectar and water. Then they have to make it back to a strange place and build something beautiful. That’s a lot to ask of an animal that hasn’t changed much since prehistoric time. i don’t use smoke for installs and that is smart. No use in disguising what is happening. The sooner they catch on the sooner they can hold their own alongside the bees installed last year.

Resources

Song of the Day – Umphrey’s McGee: “Ocean Billy” Live at Red Rocks

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