I forgot the directions I'd written out for myself, and after many twists and turns and wondering if I was ever going to make it to get my bees, I arrived at the farm. The only indication that I was in the right place were the many Langstroth hives visible from the street. There was no sign or street number. I drove about a quarter of a mile down the gravel drive to a small white garage-type building. There was a woman inside who asked for my name. I stepped inside and saw about 6 packages of bees lined up against the wall. She picked mine up from the far end and walked towards me... There they were: my bees. Bees packages are sold by weight. I bought a three pound package of Russian bees with a marked queen.
There were a couple bees hanging on the outside of the package. I gingerly took it from her, holding it away from my body. "You're new to this, aren't you" she said. Yes, it was glaringly obvious. With no hesitation she brushed the stragglers from the screen with her bare hand. "Just put them in your trunk." I think she was concerned about me driving off the road if she had missed one and it ended up flying around inside my car. As I walked with the bees out of the garage, I was surprised at how quiet they were. I expected a loud, raucous buzzing, but it was actually very soft, almost like someone whispering "buzzssss." That much, at least, calmed my nerves.
I managed to find my way home with less difficulty, and it was time to get the bees into the hive. There are a few different methods you can use, but the most popular one involves thumping the whole box on the ground so the bees fall to the bottom and then shaking them out into the hive. Trust me, I watched about 20 YouTube videos of this. It seems (and is) a rather violent way to do things, but it's the best way to get all the bees into the hive together. I was prepared as I could possibly be, but it still wasn't really enough to prepare me for what I was about to experience.
I carefully pried the lid off of the box and pulled out the queen cage. Packages are made up of extra workers from strong hives and a new queen, so the bees aren't that familiar with her. The queen is kept in a small screened cage to give the workers time to familiarize themselves with her scent and pheromone. At one end of the queen cage is a cork, and at the other is a cork in front of a candy plug. Most books and schools of thought instruct you to remove the cork in front of the candy and hang the queen cage inside your hive. The workers eat through the candy, allowing an gradual introduction of the queen. When I bought my hive, the man who made it gave me a lot of advice. One of his pieces of advice was just to open up the queen cage and dump her in (the direct release method.) Using this method creates a risk that workers will kill the unfamiliar queen. My hive man said "they're so desperate for a queen, they won't kill her" He had several strong hives on his property and a lot of experience. He also got his bees from the same supplier as me, so I decided to go with that method. I removed Her Royal Highness from the box of bees and set the queen cage to the side. That created a small opening where immediately a few bees escaped and started flying around. That's when my adrenaline started flowing. Only a few bees flying around and a few thousand more were inside that box that I was about to dump out. I thumped the box on the ground, and the buzzing immediately grew louder. I think there was a direct correlation with the volume of buzzing and my heart rate at that point. And then, I dumped the bees out.
Holyshitomgomgomgbeeseverywhereimgonnadieomgtheyrelandingonmeholyshitomgomgpleasedontsingme
Yeah... they went everywhere. I mean, they went into the hive, but immediately they were crawling up the sides and many were flying everywhere. It was pandemonium, and I was fighting with all my might not to start swatting all over the place and run for screaming for the hills. I tried to remember to breathe as I picked up the queen cage, pried the screen off, and dumped her in, too, while saying a prayer that she wouldn't fly away. Then I had to try and get the bars back on the hive and close it up. No one told me that the bees would be everywhere and it would be basically impossible to do that without squishing them. I didn't buy a bee brush (and was seriously regretting that in this moment) so I pulled up a handful of grass and used it to brush bees out of the way as I put the hive back together. There were a few casualties, but I think I managed to do it with a minimal amount of damage. The bees were all over me...my legs, my arms, they even landed on my veil. I stepped away and hoped they would fly away on their own. Immediately the bees in the hive started coming out the entrance and fanning their wings. They release a pheromone call the Nasonov pheromone that tells any bees that are outside where home is. It's really fascinating to watch. I was high on adrenaline, still kind of scared that a bee was going to sting me, and amazed that I had actually done it. The bees were in the hive.
I walked back to the house and took off my bee suit. There was one bee on the back that had stung the suit, but I managed to complete the process without getting stung in the skin. After I changed and my heart rate came down a bit, I went back outside to check things out. There were some bees flying around the hive, but minimal activity at the entrance. They clustered together inside to stay warm. I could not believe what I had just done. I don't like bugs, or things that sting, and I just handled several thousand bees. I was proud of myself. So, on Sunday the bees affirmed for me that doing things that are scary can be extremely rewarding.
I am so enthralled and amazed already, and very excited to see what more the bees have in store.
"Marriage, birth, or buryin'
News across the seas
All you're sad or merry in
You must tell the Bees"
-Rudyard Kipling, The Bee-Boy's Song
Very cool and interesting. I will be anxious to follow the progress!
ReplyDelete