Hives are installed

Home sweet Home

inspecting the colony

 

Friday night I picked up my girls, all thirty thousand of them, from The Beez Neez in Snohomish Wa. I reckon that was as close to excited/nervous as Ive ever felt, in an oh god im about to really have a baby kind of way. I was freaked out to talk loud, jostle em, or anything; I even tuned my satellite radio to outlaw country gold, figuring they wold like that sort of thing, which they seemed to. I picked my way home gingerly, but I brought the big truck so they could ride home in utter luxury so it was no big deal. I got up early the next morning for the installation and in no time was coffee’d, suited up, and ready to introduce them to their new homes. I have been grappling for a month with what to name my Hives, I decided it made sense to name them after my favorite snowboards, the ones I have on the walls as art, and the ones I use each Winter; the first Hive I dropped is called Hive X after my favorite board series of all time, Burton’s Custom X. Hive 2 is called Black Death, after my favorite art-board. Its never been ridden and I bought it primarily to hang up and enjoy. Its a beautiful deck from local outfit Capita snowboards. So there we have it: Hive X and Black Death. If you dont shred, then Black Death sounds grim like maybe I shouldve just called it Smallpox Blanket or Coughing Pig Swine Flu…..but now you know which Hive is which. I marked each component with its corresponding name so later this Summer when things get cooking over there I wont accidentally apply the wrong lid, feeder etc.

Installing the Bees was imminent as I fired up the smoker and zipped into my bee-suit. I let the kindly old beekeeper at the store talk me into buying gloves and was I glad I did, I cant believe I thought I could do this barehanded, my amateur was in full effect.
I didnt smoke the first colony near as much as I should have since I had no reference beforehand. I did spray the frames and load the cage down with simple syrup before letting them loose so that helped, but I was about to learn what not to do when installing Hives. I wanted to attach the queen cage to the frame with a rubber band but I forgot to bring any so I used the cheap little hook that came with the cage and hoped for the best. The first colony was really irritable at my clumsy install and swarmed all over my bee suit, gloves, pants everywhere; glad I was protected. A lot of bees went full on jihad on my arms and we counted a lot of stingers when I took the suit off, all of them embedded in the sleeves of the suit. Once a bee stings, she dies but with the sting she releases a pheromone that tells other bees where to attack, like a guided missile cluster they come in and laser in on the same spot. This ensures total annihilation of that specific area being attacked, total teamwork.
Black Death was the final Hive installed and a lot smoother than the previous effort. I smoked the bees in their cage 3 times as much as the previous colony and I moved all the bees alot more effortlessly and smoother. On both Hives I decided to use grass clipping for my entrance reducer and on my return the next day, the bustle of the bees with a little help from the wind ended up dispersing most of it so I suited up and brushed out what was left, then put two pieces of wood down in thier place, reducing the entrance to about an inch or two. I also moved my mint planters over near the Hives and refilled the feeders, which both colonys seemed to have gone off on. Each feeder was only half full! I refilled it in hopes they would slow down on the simple syrup the more they got settled in. Im trying not to disturb them this week but the entrance has to be secured for both Hives to help regulate Hive temperature and to also increase security for the new Hives, in case of invasion there is alot less territory for them to defend. As the Summer and colony builds, I will give them more and more of a front door, eventually removing any inhibitor so the bees can come and go across the entire range of the Hive.

Here are all the pictures from the install.

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