Releasing the Queen - 4/19/2015

[Brad H.]

We did a hive inspection late yesterday afternoon to make sure the bees were working on releasing the queen from her cage. The had just barely started working through the marshmallow, so we helped them out a bit since we have some cold temperatures on the way. We very carefully pulled back the screen on the queen cage, and you could immediately tell the bees were excited to see her out. They immediately surrounded her. She very methodically made her way right down into the hive.

I was hoping to get a good picture of her coming out but the other bees immediately surrounded her.  She is in there somewhere. This is where you pray she doesn't take off flying, and if she does you have soft hands to catch her.



Down she goes...



Cold temps today, only in the 40s with no sign of a warm up until this weekend. I've only had them four days and I already miss seeing the activity lessen due to the cold temps. I'm sure they hive is active on the inside though. Sounds like we will be waiting a couple weeks now before the next inspection when we will be checking to make sure the queen has hopefully started laying.  

[bk]

Nice job with the documentation, Brad. Keep sharing your bee adventure.  It is appreciated.  And good job with the photos.

Bees were plenty active for me on Sunday, and I was also releasing the queens in my new packages. About 3/4 of my package bees had moved up into the upper boxes.  Some starting to bring in pollen.  Hopefully they will kick into high gear after we get through this cold snap.   

[hunt4it]

Excellent pics and storyline Brad.  I'm living through you on this adventure!!!! 

[rendezvous]

Very cool pics!    Looks like she had a great reception on her release!

[Deleted]

Awesome pics, and thanks for sharing. As soon as things come together for me I'll put up some posts

[farmertrappe]

Great post.