Meet Our Honey Bees!

This year, we decided to get Italian Honey Bees. These are the most popular bees to work with in the U.S. because they are the least aggressive. We had Italian/Carniolan Hybrid Honey Bees last year and they were great but were sold out this year from our supplier.

Honey bees typically come in packages like this pictured or in nucs. Nucs are boxes filled with three frames of brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) and about one frame of honey/pollen.  Both can be picked up or shipped to your local post office. 

 

Bee packages will have a container of syrup (sugar/water mixture), a mated queen bee secured in her own chamber and about 3lbs of honey bees. It is advisable to put the honey bees in their hive as soon as possible. However, depending on the weather, if it’s colder than 55C or raining, then keeping them in the package is okay for a day or two. They should be sprayed with sugar water at least 3-4 times a day and kept in a cool and quiet place while in the package. 

 

In the queen chamber, there is usually a sugar paste (fondant), attendant bees and the queen. The chamber is closed off using a cork. During bee installation, the cork is removed exposing the fondant to the other bees.  

Why not release the queen directly into the hive? The bees need to adapt to the queen for a couple days. If the queen is released too soon, the other bees could kill her or she could fly away. Removing the cork and exposing the sugar plug allows more time for the queen to be released and for the bees to grow accustomed to the queen. The other bees help her out by chewing through the candy. 

However, many beekeepers directly release the queen and have no issues. Sometimes bees display distinctive behaviors if they reject the queen such as aggression towards her by clinging tightly to the queen cage and curling their bodies in attack mode.

 

Next, the queen chamber is placed in between the frames. The bees in the package are then sprayed with sugar spray. The sugar spray distracts them as they eat the sugar off one another and clump together. They are then dumped into the hive with a couple shakes. The hive is then covered and the bees get ready to explore their new home!