As promised, I’m including pictures from yesterdays hive installation.
Yesterday morning, at 8:00 a.m., I picked my package honeybees up from a local beekeeper.
The installation was flawless. Check out the queen and her entourage! Honeybee queens live about two to four years. During the warmer months, the worker bees live about six weeks. Do you know something interesting? The worker honeybees don’t sleep. They literally work themselves to death. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always been fascinated by a variety of things found in nature, including insects. As a child, I would watch ants and honeybees for hours. They impressed me because they were constantly working.
If you were to stop by, and I was near the beehives, I would not be wearing a bee suit. I’m right up at the hive. The honeybees buzz about me, some have bumped into me but they continue on about their bee activities. I’ve not been stung yet; however, during a new hive installation I ALWAYS take the precautionary measures and suit up. I’m not taking any chances. I did observe (while shaking the honeybees into the hive) that their temperament was calm so I know I’ll be able to walk up to them without a bee suit. I like that!
When it’s warm, you’ll find me around them a lot. I enjoy watching them flying to and from the hive. The gatherer bees are greeted at the entrance by the guard bees, who check to see if they actually belong to the hive. Once they’ve been given the approval they enter the hive and continue about their duties. If they’ve collected nectar, this will be passed off to another honeybee by regurgitating the liquid into another bees mouth.
Yesterday, throughout the day, I made a point to go back and check on the honeybees to see how they were doing. All seems to be fine. I love beekeeping!
Early this morning, I walked back to check on them again and they appear to be settling into their new home. Just like the other package honeybees these are very calm. I was able to walk amongst them without an issue. Later today, my daughter and I will go out there and hang out with them a bit. I’ll be sure to bring my Native American Flute in the key of G.
Oh! WOW! Excellent! Wonderful photos! They look busy already! Amazing!!!!
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@Jennifer, They actually are. I will have to open the hive tomorrow to see if they released the queen. But now that I think about it, might be a good idea to do that today since they are calling for flash floods here tomorrow.