Our new Honey Bees have arrived, and they are thriving!  A fellow beekeeper drove roundtrip from northern Maine to Georgia to deliver them a few weeks ago.  The two new colonies of Honey Bees were transported in a screened and secure box, otherwise Mom would never let me get this close to welcome my new pets!  Here is how Dad introduced our Bees to their new hives.

In order to install the Bees into their new hives, Dad first prepared the old hives.  Sadly three of our four hives did not survive the winter.  However, that is good news for our new Honey Bees.  Earlier in the spring, Dad cleaned up the old hives, but left some of their precious honey as food to welcome the new Bees.  To prepare for the install Dad first removed a few frames from the hive to make room to work.

Each box had it’s own Queen, contained within her own queen cage away from her loyal subjects.  There was also food for the Bees.  Dad carefully removed the can inserted into their travel box. This can was filled with sugar water which slowly dripped out to feed the bees during their journey.  The can also served as a convenient plug for the box so they couldn’t escape during transport!

Dad also removed the queen cage at this time, and safely put it to the side to install into the hive later.  The Queen was trapped within the cage by sugar candy.  It was the job of her Nurse Bees to eat the candy to release her into the new hive.  However, first we needed to get the Bees into the hive!

Now there is some debate on what is the best method to introduce Honey Bees into their new hive.  Some recommend putting the Queen in her cage inside the new hive, while leaving the rest of the bees in their box nearby.  The Bees will seek out their Queen and move into the hive on their own.  A quicker way to do this is what some call the “thump and dump.”  Dad used latter approach.  He gently tapped the box to get the Bees moving, then flipped it over the open space in the hive and dumped them into it.

This was where having the old frames filled with nectar proved very useful.  Just like humans after a long trip, these Honey Bees were hungry.  These frames filled with honey by their departed comrades were a welcome sight for hungry Bees who weren’t ready to begin exploring their new neighborhood for food.  We also fed them sugar water and pollen patties to help smooth the transition.

Once most of the Bees were poured into the hive, the travel box was placed at the entrance so the remaining Honey Bees could make the move on their own.  Dad carefully returned the frames he removed from the hive for the thump and dump in preparation to welcome the Queen to her new kingdom!  He carefully removed a cork that was preventing the Worker Bees from eating the queen candy and releasing her.  Next he attached the queen cage to one of the frames.  It was all up to her loyal subjects to release her.

Now it was time for the Honey Bees to take over and finish moving into their new home.

Finally, Dad added the jars of sugar water he made to welcome them, and closed up the hives.  Then like all new homeowners, we left them alone while they got settled.  After about a week Dad opened the hives to check if the Queens were released.  We all breathed a sigh of relief to see not only did the Queens each get released into their individual hives, there were clear signs that they were already hard at work laying eggs.

The new Bees are in the Dire Wolf Beez and Lemmeez Hives. We are also in the process of splitting Azzza Hive into two hives like we did last year.  So half of Azzza Bees will be relocated into Chuck BEEly hive.  Paws crossed that Azzza Hive continues to thrive, my Chuck BEEly Bees make an easy transition during the split, and that the new Honey Bees are happy in their hives.