Day 2

I couldn't resist driving out to the farm yesterday and checking on the the hives. There was a lot of activity, with bees coming and going. The area within a few yards of the hives was very busy. The girls seemed calm though, so I pulled up a chair and watched that activity. It's difficult to tell, but I think that most of the bees were flying only within the close vicinity of the hive. I did spot a very few that landed on the stoop with pollen on their legs.
The weather is cool in the evenings, with a high of somewhere in the upper 60's or low 70's. Clear, and a little breezy. Lillies are in bloom everywhere, and there are a few tree starting to show color.
I did open the hives just long enough to peek into the area with the baggies, and add a 1/2 slab of bee patty (I'd forgotten to add this earlier). The bee patties are probably wasted overkill, as the girls showed little interest in a small chunk I had earlier placed near the hive entrance. I was able to peek in an see that the bees were all over the baggies, so I guess they are doing their job. Originally, I was worried that the baggies would leak all over the frames. So I pulled the white board from under the bottom screen, and only one had any sign of syrup on it. I believe that happened when installed the baggies. The amount of syrup on the board was by no means of concern.

My Hive Setup

I chose to set up the hives with 2 deep supers as hive bodies (only 1 deep as of now). As a sort of experiment, I set one with wired wax foundation, one with black plastic, and one with white plastic. I re-coated the plastic frames with more beeswax, and sprayed them with some sugar syrup. On top of the hives, I added a queen excluder. I had read in a blog that this would make it easy to inspect the hive later without slopping syrup all over the place. I set a thin (about 2") mountain rim on top of that to have room for the baggie. Inner cover and outer cover after that, completing the hives.

Feeding

I fed, as described above, with 1 gallon plastic baggies filled 2/3 - 3/4 full of sugar syrup. I mixed the sugar/water at a volume measure 1:1. I'll have to check if this was "correct", as I know many people mix different ratios for spring and fall feeding. It's done now, so this may be something to check later in the fall.

If this beekeeping thing works out, and I expand after this year, I foresee going to all plastic (frames and foundations). If there isn't really any major difference in the bees accepting the plastic I'm using now, going all plastic would be a big labor reducer. I like the idea and nostalgia of the wood frames, but only if they actually work better. I guess I'm more lazy than nostalgic.

I will have to admit that the first couple of minutes after taking the top off of the shipping boxes, I was a little apprehensive. I did have my veil on, and had gloves at the ready. But, as I had read, the bees were very docile. I had sprayed them lightly with sugar syrup, and even smoked one box VERY lightly before hiving them, which may have helped. I am certainly glad I didn't wear gloves. This was a point that I thought carefully about. I'm now convinced that "gloveless" was the way to go. Much better dexterity. Having the bees buzz so close to you face took only a few minutes to get used to, and after the bees were in the hive, I took the veil off and was none the worse for it. Bottom line, no stings, and no bees that I thought wanted to sting me. Now, I will probably fully suit up for stuff like harvesting, ect, but hiving the bees was MUCH less stressful (and painful!) than I had imagined.

Looking back on hiving my first packages, I found the following oddly humorous: Emma and I wore veils, with me doing the actual work with the bees, and Emma a few feet away snapping pictures and taking video. Elke, Mom, and Dad were watching the historic event, standing only a few yards behind Emma. They had no protection at all. After the first package of bees were poured in the hive, and bees were buzzing everywhere, it must have become quickly obvious that the bees meant no harm, because no one ran or swatted, and Elke fetched tools for me with no protection whatsoever. Over the last few months, I had been the one going out of the way to mention how docile the bees were, with others going out of their way to make jokes about getting stung, and running for the house. Yet here they were, within ten yards of the action. Me with a veil, long sleeves and pant legs stuffed into my socks, and them dressed for just another warm spring afternoon.

I'll leave them alone today. Tomorrow I'll go out and do my first little check to remove the queen's cage and make sure she is doing her job.