Package of Bees

 

Say hello to Rozina

These arrived today.  Approximately 10,000 bees or 3 lbs.  They were packaged up on Thursday the 4th of April.  I plan to hive them Sunday evening; the 7th of April.  They will spend the interim in the kitchen.  They are being fed 1:1 syrup via spray bottle every couple of hours.  They look to be of regular size, not small cell, and of typical color.  I believe i saw a drone or two in the box.  There are some dead on the bottom but not much.  All in all the package looks good.

These bees will be hived in 2, 10 frame medium boxes.  Those boxes have 10 frames filled with pollen & capped honey.  The other 10 frames are fully drawn but mostly empty.  The bees will start off with excellent resources and plenty of empty cells for the queen to lay eggs in immediately.  I hope the bees will brood up quickly enough to provide honey in the first year.

Once the brood nest is filled and of great size the current Queen will be removed.  That way the bees will make a new 'local' queen with a better chance of winter survival.

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