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Three new colonies

Posted by on May 15, 2014

Three Hives in a RowMay is often a busy month for beekeepers, and it has been for me. I’ve installed a split from a fellow Cape Cod beekeeper (thanks Bruce!), and two packages from Georgia.

As you know, I really don’t like packages from Georgia, specifically for their lack of genetics that will help them survive New England winters. But, I had trouble securing additional local bees, so in order for me to up the ante and have three hives this summer, I needed to supplement with non-local bees.

A package is in front of one of the hives as I couldn’t get all the bees out of it, and I knew they would follow their queen inside after a few hours. I had to leave for Boston soon after I installed the packages, so I can only cross by fingers and hope they are doing well before my next visit.

On the hive on the left, I placed the package inside the hive and opened it, a technique for a less traumatizing installation. Unfortunately that didn’t work well for the middle hive as the queen cage broke loose and a bit of chaos started, forcing me to put their package outside after I fished out the queen and placed her inside.

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