Boxes of Bees

BeeKind had me scheduled to pick up bees today, then I got a call from them a few days back and they said I could pick them up either Friday or Saturday. I had seen that the temp was supposed to drop for a few days starting today (Saturday) so I decided to go out yesterday and get them. Picked up my two boxes plus:

1. A Serge inner cover
2. A telescoping outer cover
3. a number of large and medium follower boards
4. an entrance reducer
5. Cork board for the feeders
6. A baseball cap w/ a skep on it that says, "Honey For Health"

I could have done w/out the baseball cap, but in for a penny, in for a pound. I had two hives last year, and while I had some extra hardware around from nucs and having built my hives up, I needed stuff for this year's third hive. I had had Rachel pick me up a new screen bottom board and a feeder earlier this week then I realized I needed more, like a cover.

But I need to learn how to make some of this stuff, or it's going to get too expensive: good bottom boards are nearly $50 dollars. And I could definitely learn to make follower boards.

Before I went out there, I set up the hives:

First one where Carmel was last year, under the trees, but facing south this time. Pro's: on our property and easy access, dappled light in the summer time, bees seemed happy last summer. Cons: Probably a little too shady for the winter. But I'm telling myself I'm going to get them strong this summer, not make last year's mistakes, so they'll go into winter strong. This one will be named Queens, after where Rachel was born.

Second will be on a little hill behind Stacy and Peter's house. Pro's: Open space, sunny in the winter, room for another if she splits. Cons: May end up being too much sun in the summer, and should look into creating a visor over the entrance a la Serge LaBesque. This hive will be named Los Gatos, after the town I was born.

I installed Queens yesterday. Put the queen in then just put the box on top of the frames, put an empty deep on top of that. I've been told that they'll just march out after the queen and then in a couple days I'll take the box out. We'll see. No sign of flight yet today, but it has a chill in the air.

This afternoon, I'll go put Los Gatos in the same way.