Prazen TBH

The weird cluster is now gone. It was about half the size on the 2nd night and it's completely gone last night. Not sure if they decided to join the rest of the girls inside or if they flew off somewhere. Also, I peeked up through the bottom last night and could see that the candy plug has been eaten from the queen cage. She's been released. Once the weather gets a bit better, I'll open up the hive and see if she's laying.

Weird mini cluster

While watching the bees in my newly installed TBH, I noticed that the bees had formed a small cluster on the bottom of the hive (under the screened bottom). Last night before I went to bed I shone a light up through the screen and saw most of the bees clustered in the area where I had hung the queen cage. There was also a small group of  bees clustered at the far side of the hive. Could it be the same bunch of bees has now moved to the bottom of the hive? Could there be a second queen? Why would they be there? There were also several bees tonight that seemed intent on driving me away from the hive. They didn't sting or even head butt me but they got in my face and stayed there until I walked away.

I've got video too but am unable to remember how to post it.

New packages

Installed 2 packages yesterday. Purchased both from Knight Family Honey in Lehi, UT. Both were 3 lb packages with Carniolan queens. Installs both went smooth. Had my little helper with me.

Notice the bees on the queen cage and he's still not afraid (way cool).

The first package went into a new TBH in the back yard of our current rental. I had hung the queen cage (with candy plug) directly beneath the 2nd top bar on the left and I had arranged the follower boards to allow them 9 bars. The bars were fitted with guides made from strips of wood secured into the kerfs on the bars. The strips were then rubbed with bees wax. The follower on the right side has a 3/4 hole in it allowing the bees to move through to a feeder area where I placed the remaining sugar water that came with the package.

A queen excluder (includer) was placed over the open entrance. I've read about a lot of packages absconding and wanted to prevent this. The includer will be removed once I see that she is laying.

The other package was installed into a hive I will attempt to manage somewhat like an Oscar Perone.

It has 2 deep boxes with bottomless frames only in the top box (these frames happen to be old drawn out comb - she should be able to start immediately laying eggs upon release from the cage). This allows for a more natural and huge brood nest. The next deep box will be for honey storage for the  bees only. These 3 boxes are never to be messed with (Oscar uses 4  boxes). The boxes above these three will contain frames for honey that I will harvest. We'll see how it goes.

I set the queen cage (with sugar plug) directly on top of the frames in the 2nd box (top box is currently empty) and dumped the remaining bees in. I set the can of sugar water also on the frames where they can get to it.  Also used a queen includer on this hive. Afterwards I thought it might have been best to hang the queen from the bottom of the frames in the middle box. Also closed the entrance on the hive base and drilled 5 3/4" holes in the center of the bottom box. I'm starting to think that not having a bottom entrance might have an affect on mites. The reason that I say this is because out of the 3 langstroth hives that we had managed, only the colony that refused to use the bottom entrance survived the 2nd year.

My little helper

Had a little help painting up the new (and repainting the old) boxes today. He loves to help.

Bait Station Bees

Ok, so it's not a real bait station, but it worked the same.

I had some old frames with some crystalized honey in them. Not knowing how to get it out, and not wanting to throw it away, I set it out for the bees to clean up. It's still early spring and not much is blooming yet. I figured whatever bees were out and about might appreciate a little extra for their srping buildup.

I have no bees currently at my house (this will change Saturday!). I don't even know where the nearest hive/colony is. It didn't take long for these girls to find me.

There were many that were black. Not dark. Not mostly black. Black!

I watched where they were going after they got their fill and their colony is West/SouthWest from my house. There are some farms out that way and also some very large groups of cottonwood trees. I plan to beeline them one of these days to learn where they live. I've never seen such a dark bee. Beautiful!

I also have a couple bait hives set up in the yard. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll just move in!