# hiving package bees in cold weather.



## richr58 (Jul 23, 2014)

fitwilsons said:


> I was just notified that our bees will be arriving tomorrow after 10:00 AM and I am a little worried because the forcast says that its going to be 36 degrees and cloudy,and sunday its supposed to be snowing! i would really like to know if anyone has done this with a top bar hive before and could give me some suggestions as to what I should do.
> 
> any suggestion is welcome.
> 
> thanks!


Last season I hived my package on a cloudy sometimes rainy windy day into my toppers. The bees were just fine, if you have any comb or clean foundation for them to hang on it is best, but if not they will cluster on the queen cage. My bees are happy and healthy this spring.


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## fitwilsons (Feb 12, 2016)

ok thanks, i guess being a first timer is just making me nervous.
i might be able to hive them on monday in a little milder weather 
thanks.


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## richr58 (Jul 23, 2014)

You don't want to keep
Them boxed up all weekend


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## Mbalboa (Apr 21, 2014)

I would be careful with sugar syrup spray too, if you were planning to use it. Wet bees and cold weather don't mix.


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## fitwilsons (Feb 12, 2016)

i think that if I spray them I will do it indoors.
also, do you think it would be better to shake them in or leave the box in overnight?

thank you for the replies!


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## richr58 (Jul 23, 2014)

Shake them in hang the queen and be done with it. I mean hang the queen cage with the queen in it, not hang the the queen &#55357;&#56881; What did she do wrong


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## dgrc (May 4, 2015)

I was in a similar situation. Mid 30s and cloudy when my 2# package arrived. I gave a very light spray of 1:1 and shook the package into the hive. The bees had been on the road for three days so the workers knew the queen well. Opened the queen cage in the hive and she walked into the loosely forming cluster. I put a tray of 1:1 with twigs and corks to keep the bees from drowning and a pollen patty in the bottom of the hive.

Two days later, it's warmer and the bees are doing cleansing/orientation flights and the cluster is up on the top bars, slowly spreading out across them.

As Michael Bush says, "Everything works if you let it."


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

36 is about perfect...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespackages.htm


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## fitwilsons (Feb 12, 2016)

this is what ended up happening, 
I put the bees, package and all, into the hive then pried out the can, i tried to get the queen cage out to hang her onto a top bar, but dropped it into the bottom of the package,after that, i closed up the hive. next day(tuesday) i got the hive open again and successfully pinned the queen cage to a top bar. wednesday i opened the queen cage and let her out, she seemed very active and healthy to me. also, i put some frames of honey on top of the hive for them to eat ( I had also been using a boardman feeder inside the hive).

every one seems happy now! 
thanks.


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## dgrc (May 4, 2015)

That's good news. Glad it worked.

As for our package installation -- we're finally having spring weather. The bees stayed in a cluster for a day. As the weather warmed, the cluster loosened and bees started doing orientation flights. Today they started bringing in pollen. They've gobbled a lot of 1:1 syrup and we're continuing to feed. We also gave them a pollen patty they seem mostly uninterested in.


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## fitwilsons (Feb 12, 2016)

the bees have started to build comb and are also bringing in some pretty interesting colors of pollen ,bright red, pea green, very light colored yellow and bright orange

thanks.


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