bad weather, new bees, lots of questions from first time beekeepers

[Cindy]

I'll start with some questions, then tell our story.
1) when should we go in the hive to make sure we have a queen?
2) is it ok to feed outside of the hive entrance until weather is
better?
3) should we fix the mesh bottom and if so when?

We ordered one package of bees from the small cell group in
Tennessee. They didn't ship until this past Monday and finally
arrived, but in Missoula, on Friday. I drove down and brought them
back by car. After initially seeming pretty upset, the bees calmed
down and had made a nice swarm around the feeder and queen box.

Friday evening was cold and drizzling, but no break in weather was
forecast and the bees had been on the road a long time, so we decided
we had better get them in the hive. I kept the car warm during the
drive and brought the bees in the house to make sure they started off
warm. We geared up, got stuff ready and went out into the evening
light drizzle with umbellas. The weather did not improve and despite
umbrellas, everything got wet. The food was completely empty (we had
expected an extra can). The queen box was stapled in and hard to
remove. Wet bees hard to brush off. With the nasty weather, I
couldn't get a good look at the queen and other bees were already in
the queen box. My son thought he saw her, but I don't know. They
were getting all wet, so I put the box quickly in the hive after
removing the cork, didn't seem to be any candy there. Seemed to me
that if she was in there, she needed to come out ASAP after 4-5 days
on the road.


So that's the first dilemma. I never saw the queen with any
certainty.

We put the queen box (and a bunch of bees) in the bottom of the top
bar hive after talking with others who had trouble with crosscombing,
and knowing the bees had all been together for a while. We had
planned to just put the rest of the bees in the bee box in the hive
and leave them, but the box didn't fit. The hive was getting wet, so
we let down the bottom board a bit to let water drain (board that
covered the mesh). We resorted to bonk and dump, but the bees didn't
dump out very well, I think because of the rain. We quickly got most
of them into the hive, but they started pouring themselves through the
mesh between the mesh and bottom board. Our mesh was too wide for
these bees. We quickly replaced the top bars, but still had some bees
in the box and no food. We poured some 1:1 sugar water we had onto a
plate, added some grass and dandelions to hopefully prevent too much
drowning. We were able to prop the box the bees came in on it's side
above this, as there were still a bunch of bees in the box that we
couldn't shake out and it was raining pretty good. The sugar water
and the bees were outside of the follower board, but the board had a
hole drilled in it.

So it was a big mess and we just had get it done as quick as possible
and close up the hive. Temp dropped to the 40s for the next 36hr.

The next day, I feared they were all dead as there was a huge group
all balled up under the hive between the inside bottom board and the
mesh (under the queen box location). It stopped raining a little bit
and we saw a few of the bees move and 2-3 bees flying. We looked in
through the window and saw most of the bees swarmed up in one corner,
with another smaller group all around the queen box. I put some white
sugar along the bottom board to give them something should they be
able to move.

Sunday warmed up and the big glob of bees came to life gradually and
removed themselves and each other into the hive. It's so interesting
that 50 degrees F is the magic temperature. Lots of bees came in and
out, some coming back with pollen on them, wiggling and dancing on the
bees that I could see. By the end of the day, all of the bees had
withdrawn into the hive.

Today, there was lots of activity with bees coming and going and
flying in patterns in front of the hive. We decided to close up the
bottom board since the hive didn't seem very defensible with bees able
to get through the bottom mesh and the bees were coming and going from
below rather than through the entry holes. The bees were very busy,
but purposeful, not agressive.

Sooo......
1) we don't know if we have a queen, although the bees are acting
pretty purposeful. I was planning to wait until toward the end of the
week and hopefully better weather before getting in the hive and
bothering them. I would appreciate comments as I really want to go in
sooner and make sure the queen isn't dead in the box, but I'm guessing
it's better to let them be for a while.
2) feeding.......I'm hesitant to go in the hive right now to rig up a
feeder, but I worry that the weather is bad and they can't get out
that much to forage in a new home. We have lots of blossoms,
but ......the weather. We have rigged up a feeder to tack onto the
outside of the hive for a few days and then just hope we don't get
wasps. Recommendations anyone?
3) We put mesh that was too large on the bottom of the hive. Closing
up the bottom with the board solves it temporarily, but we're thinking
we'll need to eventually do something so the bees can walk along the
bottom of the hive without falling through. Ideas on how to
accomplish this?

[Cindy]

Since this post, I went into the hive quickly during a break in the
weather (65 and sun). Bees were orderly and busy, seemed to be
starting some comb on the end by the queen box. I fetched out the
queen box and couldn't tell much initially as it was just full of
bees. Boy, were they mad about that. Closed up the hive and backed
away with the box, finally got all the bees out and was pleased to
find no queen in the box. 2 dead workers, but queen is presumably in
the hive. Wow, were the bees upset and swarming around for about 3
hours, then they settled down.

Today, they are peacefully coming in and out of the hive despite the
drizzle.

Ronnie, thanks for the help.

Cindy

[Veronica and Doug Honthaas]

I was just thinking of Anna and her loss. Maybe The first swarm that someone
in the club catches and does not have a need for need for could be offered
to her. Hopefully, we can all support each other this way. Happy days. Ronny