This may fall under the category of "shutting the barn door after the
horse ran out", but if I wonder if I made a mistake installing my
packages yesterday, and if so, if there's still time to fix it.
Basically, I left the queen in her cage and laid the cage down on the
screened bottom board, under the frames. I heard some people do that
instead of attaching the cage to one of the frames, and it seemed like
the simpler solution to me.
But now I am worried that with the 30 degree night we had yesterday,
and will have again the next couple of nights before I release the
queen, the bees will all cluster at the top, near the feeder, and the
queen will freeze. Should I go back into the hive today and
reposition the queen cage (or maybe even release the queen - she's
been with these bees since last Thursday, and they didn't seem to be
agressive towards her when I was installing the package)?
I think the workers would find a way to cluster around the queen cage
and keep her warm, but I don't want to wait 3 days just to find out
that I was wrong on that point.
Thanks very much.
horse ran out", but if I wonder if I made a mistake installing my
packages yesterday, and if so, if there's still time to fix it.
Basically, I left the queen in her cage and laid the cage down on the
screened bottom board, under the frames. I heard some people do that
instead of attaching the cage to one of the frames, and it seemed like
the simpler solution to me.
But now I am worried that with the 30 degree night we had yesterday,
and will have again the next couple of nights before I release the
queen, the bees will all cluster at the top, near the feeder, and the
queen will freeze. Should I go back into the hive today and
reposition the queen cage (or maybe even release the queen - she's
been with these bees since last Thursday, and they didn't seem to be
agressive towards her when I was installing the package)?
I think the workers would find a way to cluster around the queen cage
and keep her warm, but I don't want to wait 3 days just to find out
that I was wrong on that point.
Thanks very much.