# Installed my first package into my Warre hive



## chauktaw (Apr 7, 2011)

Good morning! My ladies finally arrived yesterday afternoon on a beautiful day with temps close to 80 degrees, and mildly humid. I picked them up just before 5:00 pm and I was going to wait until it cooled off a little bit and the sun would be well on it's way down. A few last minute details to finish up and to wait for my wonderful wife of 23 years to get home from work for "moral support". 
I took my time getting ready, but wouldn't you know it mother nature was going to test me. Thunderstorms started popping up on the horizon, now I was rushed as daylight was fading fast with rain on the way in. My wife gets home from work at 8:00 pm and I am already moving out into the field with my little harem and my 15 yr old son in tow. No time for veil or gloves (I was saving them for my wife, she has lots of hair!) only a squirt bottle of 1:2 syrup and my hive tool. 
The lid popped off the package nicely, I held onto the queen cage strap while my son gently lifted out the feed can. THe queen cage came out nicely covered in bees and I stapled it onto the middle bar of the hive. Now came the moment of the bump and pour. Truly amazing how many bees are in those packages. A few started flying around, but not many. My son started to freak out a little because some were landing on him and crawling up his hand from the feed can. Yes, he never put the can down anywhere and I didn't have the presence of mind to clean the bees off of it so that he could. With some gentle encouragement he calmed down and maintained his cool, even with one crawling down the back of his shirt! We never did find that one, she escaped on her own. So, I had to bump and dump about 4 times, and still could not get all of them out. It was at that time that one of them decided I was not their friend and stung me in the neck. I placed the package on the ground and moved back to the hive. I put the rest of the bars on, placed my top feeder and another body, the quilt and top.
It was now almost dark so back to the remaining bees in the package. I put the can back into the package with the thoughts of dealing with the remaining bees this morning. That is when another one decided to sting, right in the same place as the first one. That one hurt! Everything cleaned up and into the house as it was now dark. But I go back out with a flashlight to check things out. Looks good except for the remaining two dozen straglers outside the hive. With a small stick and a flashlight, I moved each one to the entrance and they each crawled in. With the girls tucked away for the evening, it was time for me to tuck into bed. At 2:30 i woke up with a start, I forgot to take out the cork of the queen cage, ughhh! I will be going back in this morning to take care of that, before it warms back up. 

All in all I think it went well, I hope they like their new home!


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## WV Bee Guy (May 10, 2011)

If you have extra bees left in the package just leave it open and lean it up against the front of the hive, the stragglers will crawl out and up into the hive on their own.


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## chauktaw (Apr 7, 2011)

Thanks WV, that is what I did. Some crawled out, some flew out.

Just got in from trying to get the cork out of the queen cage. What a job that was with bees not real happy, and not giving me a whole lot of room to work. I ended up pushing the cork in, it would not come out. I hope the Queen is okay! The bees wouldn't let me see her. I would brush them off the cage, and a new group would fall in behind. I am taking that as a sign that she was okay. I didn't see her crawl out either so I buttoned everything up and will see in a couple of days. I did see some bees with pollen already and they have gone thruogh a pint of syrup in 12 hours. They must have been hungry!.


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