Busy Bee's

It has been a week since we got the bee's and it's time to open the boxes and make sure our queens are out of their  little box and that the hives look healthy.

He first added some rope that he will burn to make the smoke

The smoke makes them a bit more docile it masks the alarm pheromones that are released by the guard bees

He will remove the box they came in last week, and replace with  frames

They had already started to add some outer comb

We have a little feeder that we are adding sugar water just to make sure they have enough food while getting acclimated.  It gives the bee's a little jump start.

Sean removing the hive (super) they came in

brushing the bee's off carefully 

replacing the box with the extra frames

The queens box, can now be removed she has been excepted by the hive

I tried to get a picture of the queen, we saw her but she was quickly covered by the bees

She is darker than all the rest of the bees and has a longer body, every time we saw her I was just not quick enough with the camera, before the rest of the bees climbed on top of her to protect her.

The bee's look great and had already started to make us some honey. I was surprised that they were as calm as they were.  Last year I stayed as far away as possible, this year I was right next to Sean, did not have a veil on, and the bee's just ignored me.  Sean just uses latex gloves on his hands, he did feel a small prick on his thumb but the stinger did not go through the glove.

He has also learned  the hard way to put rubber bands around the bottom of his pant legs. 

 In order for me to get any closer I will need to buy a jacket and veil, but I felt pretty brave if I do say so myself.