3 packages arrives late today will install tomorrow morning

Discussion in 'General Beekeeping' started by barry42001, Apr 4, 2012.

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  1. Apr 4, 2012 #1
    barry42001

    barry42001 New Member

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    Was sorta bummed but they were mailed from Texas Monday evening, didn't expect them till thursday. Early thursday I will install them for now have sprayed them down with sugar water and just keeping them quiet. Very few dead bees and it seems I gathered a few strays frpom somewhere a few light colored bees were taking a interest in tha packages or the sugar water lol.
    Barry
     
    barry42001, Apr 4, 2012
    barry42001, Apr 4, 2012
  3. Apr 4, 2012 #2
    riverrat

    riverrat New Member

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    good deal glad to hear you got them in keep us posted
     
    riverrat, Apr 4, 2012
    riverrat, Apr 4, 2012

  5. Apr 4, 2012 #3
    jim314

    jim314 New Member

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    Let us know how the install goes :)
     
    jim314, Apr 4, 2012
    jim314, Apr 4, 2012
  6. Apr 5, 2012 #4
    barry42001

    barry42001 New Member

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    finished installing the girls to new house

    100_0063.jpg 100_0064.jpg 100_0065.jpg 100_0066.jpg 100_0068.jpg 100_0067.jpg
     
    barry42001, Apr 5, 2012
    barry42001, Apr 5, 2012
  7. Apr 6, 2012 #5
    oblib

    oblib New Member

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    So did you shake them out onto the towels in front of the hive or just layed the cages over and let them walk out?
     
    oblib, Apr 6, 2012
    oblib, Apr 6, 2012
  8. Apr 6, 2012 #6
    barry42001

    barry42001 New Member

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    shook about half inside the hive over the queen cage, rest on the towel trying to not get many dead bees inside the hive--alittle less work for the house keeping bees, though there will always be a few dead bees that fall inside.
    Barry
     
    barry42001, Apr 6, 2012
    barry42001, Apr 6, 2012
  9. Apr 6, 2012 #7
    G3farms

    G3farms New Member

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    Looking good, what are you starting them on wax, plastic or nothing?
     
    G3farms, Apr 6, 2012
    G3farms, Apr 6, 2012
  10. Apr 6, 2012 #8
    jim314

    jim314 New Member

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    Looks like all went well:thumbsup:
     
    jim314, Apr 6, 2012
    jim314, Apr 6, 2012
  11. Apr 7, 2012 #9
    barry42001

    barry42001 New Member

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    put down 10m plastic to keep the weeds down, and make a barrier of sorts against ants. and yeah all went according to plan, for once lol:thumbsup:
     
    barry42001, Apr 7, 2012
    barry42001, Apr 7, 2012
  12. Apr 7, 2012 #10
    G3farms

    G3farms New Member

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    I like the black plastic idea, I use old black rubber roofing that was a freebie for hauling it off.
     
    G3farms, Apr 7, 2012
    G3farms, Apr 7, 2012
  13. Apr 7, 2012 #11
    barry42001

    barry42001 New Member

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    took a quick peek in the hives to see is queens were released, they were, small amount of comb starting to be drawn, as expected, what I did not expect is when I was closing up the second hive, saw a blue dot on the black plastic I am setting on the ground to keep weeds and grass down around the hives. The blue dot was on the back of the Queen she evidently dove off a frame and I failed to notice. I scooped her up and returned her to the top bars of the frames immediately she was checked out by a few dozen workers and then everything resumed as normal as she slid down between the frames--close one--buckfast bees tend to be dark anyway without the blue dot she would have been most difficult to spot.:shock:
     
    barry42001, Apr 7, 2012
    barry42001, Apr 7, 2012
  14. Apr 7, 2012 #12
    G3farms

    G3farms New Member

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    Good save!!
     
    G3farms, Apr 7, 2012
    G3farms, Apr 7, 2012
  15. Apr 8, 2012 #13
    tecumseh

    tecumseh New Member

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    The blue dot
    so these are not marked with the yearly color (yellow this year I think)?

    sounds like the plastic was useful for other reasons besides keeping down the weeds? it is always a good idea to closely inspect the bottom side of the lid when these are first removed.
     
    tecumseh, Apr 8, 2012
    tecumseh, Apr 8, 2012
  16. Apr 8, 2012 #14
    barry42001

    barry42001 New Member

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    Yeah all the queens were with blue dot, last years queen had a yellow dot, since this my first season using marked queens, I never paid attention to color code for the year.
    But for sure I am glad I had them clipped and marked lol the potential for disaster was certainly there.
    Barry
     
    barry42001, Apr 8, 2012
    barry42001, Apr 8, 2012
  17. Apr 8, 2012 #15
    Iddee

    Iddee New Member

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    I think Tec may be right on this year's color.


    Queen-ID-Colors1.gif
     
    Iddee, Apr 8, 2012
    Iddee, Apr 8, 2012
  18. Apr 8, 2012 #16
    G3farms

    G3farms New Member

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    that would make the queen a 2010 model, he should have at LEAST a 2011 model!!
     
    G3farms, Apr 8, 2012
    G3farms, Apr 8, 2012
  19. Apr 8, 2012 #17
    barry42001

    barry42001 New Member

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    interesting--in Oct of 2011 was sent a queen with yellow dot, this year 3 queens/ package blue dots hmmm!
    Barry
     
    barry42001, Apr 8, 2012
    barry42001, Apr 8, 2012
  20. Apr 8, 2012 #18
    G3farms

    G3farms New Member

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    Sounds like somebody is off on the color and year thing.
     
    G3farms, Apr 8, 2012
    G3farms, Apr 8, 2012
  21. Apr 8, 2012 #19
    barry42001

    barry42001 New Member

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    all the packages and queens I have ever gotten, always had a small contingent of workers say 5 0r 6 to feed the queen, these didn't queen was alone being fed from the bees in the package I assume. heard that was going to be the thing of the future faster acclimation to the bees and queen. interesting.
    Barry
     
    barry42001, Apr 8, 2012
    barry42001, Apr 8, 2012
  22. Apr 9, 2012 #20
    tecumseh

    tecumseh New Member

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    I am assuming these packages were from RWeaver???? They (unlike BWeaver) have multiple choices in queens so their paint color scheme might be to designate the kind of queen.

    I suspect (don't really know, speculating for certain) that some of my more hygienic bees don't tolerate the dots for long... some colors (red for example) they seem to find greatly displeasing. I have notice one or two example where within less than a week they had remove all except for the very outside edges of the dot.
     
    tecumseh, Apr 9, 2012
    tecumseh, Apr 9, 2012
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