Challenging year for package installation

[Tom Borchardt]

The very cold weather we had in early April presented a number of unusual challenges for package pick-up, storage, and installation.  I just finished installing the 25 3lb packages (plus one queen) that I purchased from Mary Celley last Friday.  Fortunately, these were excellent packages, way more than 3lb of bees and when I picked them up there were nearly zero dead bees on the bottom of the crates.

The first challenge was to get them home from Mary's place in Brooklyn to my house on the west side of Madison.  Normally, I would stack the packages in the back of my open pickup truck and cover them with a blanket.  On Mary's advice, and with her help, we instead managed to get all 25 packages inside the cab of my truck.  This kept the bees warm and protected from the wind during the 30 minute drive home.  All packages arrived safely.

The next challenge was to keep the packages warm in my unheated (but attached) garage until I could get them installed.  Based on the weather forecast, and again based on advice from Mary, I planned to wait until the worst of the cold weather had passed before beginning to install.  This meant that the bees would be in the garage for Friday and Saturday, with overnight lows both days in the low teens.  I stacked the packages fairly close together, allowing some air space between the stacks (see photo) and covered the stack with a couple of fleece blankets.  I checked on the bees frequently over the next two days, sticking my hand under to blanket to determine how much warmth the bees had generated.  The stack of 25 packages stayed warm and healthy, the extra queen was also nestled in the midst of the stack, where she picked up some of the hitchhiker bees from the outside of the packages.

I started installing the first 10 packages on Sunday.  I started with the packages that were on the bottom of the stack, as these would have been in the coldest spot in the stack.  I put all of the packages for that day back into the cab of the truck, after letting the truck warm up for a bit.  Each package was installed in a single medium on drawn comb with two frames of honey.  It was cold so I kept the package wrapped in a towel until just before installing.  I put the queen cage in my pants pocket (rather than my beekeeping jacket pocket) for extra warmth while I dumped the bees into the hive.  I got the queen into the hive and closed things up as quickly as I could.  I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best, it was predicted to be another cold night.

I repeated this process again on Monday, and by the end of the day I had 20 of the 25 packages installed.  This presented another challenge, as it became much more difficult to keep 5 packages warm in the garage than it was was to keep 25 packages warm.  I added another blanket and moved the spare queen into the house.  I again monitored the bees often and was prepared to move them into the basement if they showed signs of getting chilled.  Fortunately, they managed to stay warm and by the end of the day Tuesday all 25 packages were installed.

Today it was finally a nice spring day!  I added my spare queen to a queenless survivor colony and then went with some trepidation to check on the packages I installed on Sunday.  To my great relief, the Sunday package bees were flying and happy today.  I breathed a sigh of relief.

Rain and cold are again in the forecast, it is shaping up to be a record cold April (according to the local weather reports), so I will keep them in one box until I am sure that warmer weather is here to stay.

Tom B.

[Mary Celley]

Right Tom! Not for the faint hearted.  The bees I installed two weeks ago have covered brood and a nice laying pattern. Doing great.  Last week and Tuesday's load all installed and doing great.  The bees really keep the hive warm. They generate an incredible amount of heat.  In these conditions they have to be on drawn comb and frames of honey.  Small amounts of willow were coming in yesterday.  What I like about installing early is that a month jump on the game, and because my bees are in a rural setting no farmer's are out spraying.  Bees are safe for a month.  No drifting, no absconding, no wearing themselves out because they are stuck being in the hive.  I love it.  Was going to do another load today but need to get ready for Farmer's market and people that didn't want to be on last three loads would not want to be on this load.  Next load will be in 10 days.  Be ready, it is time.  Mary