April 20: New Bees!

4/20
Damage: 2 stings

Cloudy and rainy but cleared up later. Picked up 2 packages of bees from Simpson's in Danville with Savannah--3 lbs each, one Russian, one Italian. Pushed cork into the queen cage and quickly squeezed in a marshmallow with Savannah's help. Positioned queen cage in center with screen facing out and marshmallow down. Placed in hive box with 9 frames of drawn out comb in gray and another one in green (new paint job). Syrup 1:1--4 pounds sugar, 4 pounds water, 3 drops wintergreen, 2 tsp honey b healthy. Made 3 batches and spread across two plastic jugs. Remember no inner cover with feeder or will have drowning bees. Put pail of water out with pieces of wood floating, so they won't drown in the water. Put entrance reducer in after reading in book that I should.

A ridiculous number of bees in the air after installing Italians. Very stressful. Took a break to think. Moved green hive further away from gray one (Italians). I don't see how I would be able to work the bees with the hives that close (although people seem to do it all the time if you look at pictures of apiaries.) Waited awhile for Italians to settle. They were very upset. Then installed Russians. One sting now. One sting later when a bee climbed up my jeans.

Savannah was a huge help. I couldn't have done it by myself. She's not afraid of the bees and I think she should start her own hive of Michigan bees.