Bee Delivery
May 17, 2018
About two weeks ago, we received a delivery of bees.
Missy’s family won a gift certificate to Best Bees for beekeeping services a few months back. I had been thinking a lot about starting beekeeping and reading a few books (as evidenced by some of the books on my reading list so far this year). I’ve also been reading the Keeping Backyard Bees blog and attended a bee presentation by Beverly Bees.
With all of that, I didn’t feel prepared to do it myself. As a result, we decided to use the gift certificate toward a year of beekeeping as a way to ease into it.
After making their journey in this box, they seemed to get right to setting up their new home.
Our beekeeper, Aaron, set up the hive, leveled it, added some feeders, added the bees, inserted the queen with her attendants, and inserted the entrance reducer.
I’ve gone out every couple days to monitor their progress (but not open up the hive). I’ve seen some steady in-and-out from the bees returning with pollen and am hoping to see more activity soon. The queen should’ve gotten laying and hopefully those bees have started to mature and contribute to the hive. It’s getting into the spring flow which is an important time for a hive to start building up.
We’re scheduled for a follow-up visit Monday to check on their progress. Unfortunately, I’ll be at work, so I won’t be able to observe, but it’ll be good to know how they’re doing.
