On Sunday night we had snow. Monday's overnight temperature was 20 degrees. It was cold this morning, but I got the call that our bees were ready to be picked up. It seems too cold for bees. I put them in the back of the truck and they were very quiet. A few stragglers were clinging to the outside screen. As the car warmed up, so did the bees. Their buzzing got louder and stronger. I turned up the radio so that I wouldn't hear them. Driving with six-thousand bees in your car is a little nerve wracking. I put them in the garage and watched to see if the temperature would get above 40. It did, so I got ready to hive the bees.
The sun was shining, it was in the mid 40's. It turned into a fine day for installing packaged bees. I carefully removed the cans of sugar water, took out the queen cages, shook the bees out into the hive body and set the queen cages between the frames. The queen cage's have plugs in them to keep her separate from the other bees. I replaced the plugs with a mini-marshmallows. In a few days the workers in each hive will eat through the marshmallow to free her. By that time they'll recognize her pheromones and accept her as their queen.
Buckets of sugar water were set inside the top hive body and pollen patties were set on top of the frames. The maple and poplar trees have pollen for the bees to collect so they won't need additional supplements. We'll continue feeding sugar water until there's a good nectar flow from flowers.
I consider today's installation a great success because I didn't get stung, the bees were active, and I felt more confident than last year. The bee keeping classes prepared me for success.