W Mass New beek

[Michael Bach]

I have been reading and learning new things everyday on this site.  It is such a beneficial place.  Most of the information that I read I cannot apply it yet due to my lack of experience. 

That will change in a big way this weekend.  I will be hiving my four new colonies.  Two are mine and two are my mentors.  I have built a very nice bee yard to stage the hives.  I cannot wait.  I am 35 years old and I feel like a kid on Christmas.  I really hope the weather is kind to us in New England this summer.

I am so excited to realize the full experience of beekeeping.

Saturday's weather is sunny and in the mid 70's.  Is that good for hiving?

[Natalie]

Welcome to the forum!
I hope the weather is better here this summer than last years too. I am looking forward to this weekend so I can check on my bees, it will finally be warm enough by then. Its been raining for days and I am sure they are miserable being cooped up when they had been able to be out flying the past month.
What type of bees did you get?  Are you anywhere near Deerfield? The Mass Beek Association is having their big annual field day there on June 26, its at UMass Agronomy Farm, South Deerfield, MA.
a few of us from this forum usually go to it, if we know who is going to be there we arrange to meet up for lunch.
Good luck with hiving your bees this weekend, there is nothing to it ;)
Have fun and maybe we'll see you around.

[annette]

Sunny and 70's is the perfect weather. Have fun and share your experiences here with us.

[Michael Bach]

Natalie,

I bought 2 4lb packages of Italians.  My mentor did the same.  The bees are as I type enroute to South Deerfield being transported by Dan Conlon of Warm Colors Apiary.  They arrive Friday and I pick them up Saturday.

South Deerfield is only 30 miles north of me.

The plan this years for for me to buy Georgian bees and my mentor of buy Northern Bred Nucs from the central part of the state.  Unfortunately, last summer was not kind for anybody in New England the Nucs were not available.  So he bought Georgians also.

I will mark June 25th on the calendar and try to "bee" there.

Michael

[Cindi]

Michael, welcome to our forum, great you found us.  You will have fun hiving those colonies of bees, your first and great introduction to that secret life of the honeybee.  Stick around, we love new members.  We will be here to help you, just ask the questions, the answers will come.  You will find soon enough how deeply they hold you under their beautiful spell.  have that wonderful day, with love, happiness and health.  Cindi

[Natalie]

I bought some nucs from Dan conlon last year, he is the one that organizes the big field day too.
Yikes, I just realized that I hit the wrong button when typing the date, its June 26 not the 25, I noticed it when you wrote the 25 in your post.
It is Saturday June 26.
If you go you can meet up with the rest of us at lunch if you like.
I'll edit my other post to reflect the correct date.

[Michael Bach]

With a bit of a delay the work begins in ernest tomorrow.  Dan postponed the first shipment of from April 2nd to today the 9th.  Picked up four 4lb packages.  It was a cool rainy day the and bees were in  atight cluster and very calm.  We decided that the weather was too cold, windy, and too late in the day to hive them so we will do it Saturday AM.  The bees are spending the night in the greenhouse.  They should be comfy in there. 

All the hives are ready and when the weather warms tommorow we will hive them.

So excited!

[fermentedhiker]

Welcome to the forum.  I'm a bit jealous since my packages won't be ready until the end of the month :).

[Natalie]

So this is exciting news, too bad about the rain today I thought it was going to quit in the afternoon but no such luck. Tomorrow is suppose to be nice so you should have good weather for working with bees.
Have fun and report back! :)

Adam, how many packages did you have coming?

[fermentedhiker]

@Natalie I'm getting 10 from Rossman's this year.  I've gone crazy I guess.  I managed to get a semi-stable pollination contract/yard arrangement with a local farmer.  My plan is to split(if possible) and requeen with northern and/or survivor queens in july in hopes of going into winter with 20+ small hives and maybe have 15 survive until next spring.  But you know what they say about plans :)

[Natalie]

Hey that is great!! I am glad to hear you have found a site that will enable you to expand.
You never know, you may get lucky and everything will go as planned. I have found that if I have no expectations I am never disappointed. :-D
My bees overwintered fantastically and I am sure its because I started with all local survivor stock.
Best of luck with it!

So Michael, did you get all your bees in their new digs?

[Michael Bach]

Today was great!

My bees spend the night in the warm greenhouse.  The weather to start the day was cold and windy.  I let the clouds break and let it warm up a bit.  The bees were super active in their package.  Luckily, as it became time to hive the bees the wind slowed to a breeze.

All of the queens were in great shape and very active it her cage.  All queens were in their cages alone with no attendents.  One queen have comb build over her cage.  With careful work with a tooth pick to remove the comb, I was able to verify she was alive inside.

All the bees were very well behaved and mild mannered.  The temps were in the upper 50's and sunny when I hived.  It was very straight forward and simple.  Hiving four packages was a bit intimidating at first.  I quickly became aware of how many bees I had.  I was very trusting and made all my motions slow and delibrate.  I am so proud of my wife, she freaks out at the very sign of a spider.  She hived one package all by herself.  She was nervous at first.  After a few minutes she realized the girls were in a good mood and just happy be out of the package.

I was amazed how well a few squirts of sugar water calms them down.  I placed the sugar water can, entrance feeder, and a pollen patty in the upper deep of each hive.  I made my own entrance reducer that I installed just before dark when all the girls were settled in for the night.  I have the copper garden style tops that look great.  My midafternoon the bees were starting to venture out past the hive.  It is going to be so much fun to watch them grow as a colony.  I loved seeing all the things a read about.  From orientation flights to fanning the hive, to feremone scenting.

That was so cool.

[Jim134]

Michael Bach .........
Welcome to the forum.

South Deerfield is only 30 miles north of me.

Michael

If South Deerfield as 30 miles north of you.
So you live in the Springfield area ???

Massachussetts County Beekeeping Organizations

           http://www.massbee.org/links.shtml

Massachusetts Beekeeper's Association Field Day
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
UMass Agronomy Farm, South Deerfield, MA
Hosted by the Franklin County Beekeepers Association
    
           http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,23082.0.html


                           BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)