Rookie's first time hiving and amazing observations...

[BabcockFarms]

Well I picked up two packages on Friday the 20th. They rode in the seat beside me on the two and a half hour drive back home. Let them settle down in the garage for about three hours, they seemed very passive, so I decided to hive them without any protection. Rapping the package pulling the can of syrup and removing the queen was such a rush.
It went very smooth except for a few rookie mistakes like forgetting the bee brush and forgetting to put the frames I pulled back in until I had everything buttoned up.

I hadn’t left yet after hiving the packages and they were already hauling out the dead and/or dying bees. I looked like about 200 between both hives were drug out and away of the hive.

Today I went to mark and directly release the queens. I had attached the queen cages with rubber bands to the frame like I had seen so many folks on here recommend. They had already drawn wax around the cage and when I removed it after a bit of a struggle it pulled some of the foundation with it. I know this shouldn’t a problem as they should repair it.  Have the folks that typically rubber band the cage to frame experience this? Or did I miss something. If I didn’t miss something for me it would seem better to just hang the cage. Another thing how do you remove the rubber bands with bees everywhere without taking out a few or pissing them off?  Right now I just left the rubber bands around the frame but would like to take them off. Suggestions?

Transferring the queen to a marking cage and marking them was much less of an issue than I had anticipated. I almost didn’t mark them as I had visions of the queens flying off to the next county. This will really help find the queen and to show if she had been replaced.

Seeing the foundation drawn out to about 3/4th of an inch in the middle in three days was amazing. They had also consumed about a quart and a half in on hive and about a half a gallon in the other this hard to even comprehend. So a word of caution to fellow rookies make sure they have enough food to start them off right A quart feeder would have been empty for a day or better, and I’m sure that stresses them even more.

This was a very exciting third day of being a rookie beekeeper, seeing all the progress they have made.

I have an incredible amount of awe for their resolve. I have some video but haven’t edited it down to a presentable amount.

Thanks for all of your help and postings as it made this much less intimidating.

[cinch123]

Also a beginner here... I rubber banded mine in too. In the first hive, I was able to pull the queen cage right out and slide off the rubber band without annoying them too bad. I have not had the second hive opened up yet because of lousy weather here. I will open it up tomorrow and see how it looks. Should be interesting because it will have been a week. I'm sure the queen cage is completely waxed in by now, so getting it out should be interesting.

I was also amazed to see how much comb they had drawn in three days in the first hive. Interestingly, mine have not been drinking much sugar syrup. Dandelions are in full bloom and the wax is dandelion yellow!

[ranger774]

On the first hive we did this spring, they had chewed thru the rubber band.  So I had to remove two frames, which were getting comb built and covered with bees.  Reached to the bottom and remove the empty cage.  On the second I cut the band while holding the empty cage and lifted both out.  The bees were very nice to me this time. :-D

[BeeMaster2]

>Today I went to mark and directly release the queens. I had attached the queen cages with rubber bands to the frame like I had seen so many folks on here recommend. They had already drawn wax around the cage and when I removed it after a bit of a struggle it pulled some of the foundation with it. I know this shouldn't a problem as they should repair it.  Have the folks that typically rubber band the cage to frame experience this? Or did I miss something. If I didn't miss something for me it would seem better to just hang the cage. Another thing how do you remove the rubber bands with bees everywhere without taking out a few or pissing them off?  Right now I just left the rubber bands around the frame but would like to take them off. Suggestions?>

The bees will remove them. After removing a hive we end up with dozens of them in the hive. After a couple of days you start seeing them hanging off the front porch. The last small one that we did, I picked up several of them from the bottom of the hive but there were just as many on the ground in front of the hive. Last year we used a bunch of fat rubberbands that I was planning on reusing. The bees had cut every one of them in a few days, before I had a chance to get them out.
Jim

[Joe D]

I haven't installed packages but with the rubber bands, I have used them to hold in cutout comb and in a few days they have chewed the bands into and carried them out of the hive.  they will wax and comb over anything though.  Doesn't sound like it works to well for holding queens.

Joe

[BabcockFarms]

Maybe by the time they chew enough of it to break maybe it won't be so tight that it takes out some bees when it snaps.