Red Cedar

I picked my package of bees up at West Coast Bee on Saturday and brought them home, put the finishing touches on my top-bar hive as the snow started to fall late Saturday morning, and installed my bees with Brian’s help on Sunday morning. As much as the process  of pouring/shaking the bees in freaked me out, it really wasn’t that bad and I only got stung once (which was my own fault because I took my gloves off to work which gave a bee an entry into the sleeve of my hoodie – I need to close up my wrists better next time). Getting stung was actually a good thing because it reminded me that a beesting isn’t that big of a deal, and I’m less nervous about the prospect of it happening in the future – the saddest part for me being the fact that a bee died as a result. Some of the other bees also didn’t make it because they clung to the box and wouldn’t go in the hive (a very small number) and because of the weather they didn’t fly up into the hive as I had hoped (it started raining quite hard right after the install). In any case, the bees are clumped up around the feeder as they should be, and I’ve got a pollen patty right above them for additional nutrition. The hive defenders are definitely active and buzzed around me yesterday when I opened the hive to look in. I’m hoping to see some comb development by this weekend – and will try to get some actual bee photographs soon but I’m worried about leaving the hive open too long in this weather. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed right now that the hive is going to survive until pollen season and start doing what it is supposed to!