Brand New Bees

We got our bees today! 

We took our bottom hive box to the local beekeeper 2 weeks ago. Saturday he called to say they were ready. We set an appointment for 6:30 Monday morning. Apparently it's important to move them early in the morning while it's still too cool for them to be active. Getting up early on my day off is not something I would do for just anybody. My new fuzzy, buzzy friends are apparently on the list.

We arrived on time and were directed around to a little lot where several new hives awaited pickup.  Husband of Handiness asked the woman who greeted us if it would be a problem that the spot he had readied for the hive currently had a lot of wasps swarming the tree. She wasn’t sure but thought maybe we shouldn’t put it there, just to be sure.  She told us to put the hive where we felt it would be safe, close to where it would eventually be, pull the screen away from the opening and run.

We drove the bees to Sister-In-Law’s property and selected a temporary spot not too far from where they will live once the wasps are gone. I put on my brand new bee suit with its attached hood and long gloves. I was ready. No running from the bees for this lady!

My super stylin' new outfit

 Husband of Handiness selected a spot he felt would be safe from both wasps and mice. He lugged the hive over and settled it carefully in its new spot. I readied to pull the screen away. We paused for him to take a picture and the tension mounted. Finally it was time. I pulled the screen away and…

Nothing much happened. Four or five bees crawled out the opening and wandered around like they could really use a cup of coffee. A couple minutes later a few more bees came out and took to the air. They buzzed about drunkenly for a bit then went back in the hive. A dead bee lay in the entrance. Another one clung motionless to the window screen. I prodded at it a bit but it didn’t respond.

Husband of Handiness doing the heavy lifting

Prodding and unresponsive bee

Oh no, my brain screamed. You’ve had these bees less than an hour and you’ve killed them!   
 

Husband of Handiness reminded me that bees are not active when it's cold and that it was still just over 50 degrees. He suggested we go home and make them up some sugar syrup to help them out. 

I made up the syrup, (one part water to one part sugar, heated until completely liquid) and Husband of Handiness cut and bent some window screen so they could get to their emergency food without drowning in it. 

Making emergency bee food
(also known as simple syrup)

Letting the bee food cool

I suited up again and we drove back to the hive. 

The lid was already glued down. Obviously these bees had been busy. Husband of Handiness pried it off as I ran the camera. Taking pictures with leather gloves on was just as difficult and frustrating as I had anticipated. Once the lid was off I discovered that the bees were alive and active and generally didn’t give a hoot about us or what we were doing.

 

Lifting the lid for the first time

Feeding the non-scary bees

Seriously, these are some super chill bees. If I moved too fast a few of them would fly up and buzz around a bit. Other than that they seemed wholly unconcerned about the fact that we had just ripped the roof off their home and were messing around, pouring stuff into the feeder. I ended up taking off a glove to make taking pictures easier. I don’t know how it will be in the future, but today we didn’t seem to be in any danger of getting stung. The bees were too busy to bother with the likes of us.

I left my bees knowing they are alive and busy. I will probably be bothering them more than I should in the next few weeks. I love my new fuzzy, buzzy, and surprising friendly friends. 

At the Bakery ready to write about my experience