New Package Beekeepers - What's Next

You Have Installed Your Bees - Here What’s Next…..

Hey Beeks!!


Good job on getting your bees home and installed. This weather has not made things easy, but the cooler temps will have kept them inside getting used to things, so it’s not a bad thing at all. But now that things are warming, here is what you should do next.


TIME TO ENSURE THEY HAVE FOOD

When you installed, you should have given your bees the pollen patty, and added sugar water to your feeder. At this time, make sure they still have sugar water. They may have taken some, none, or all. It’s very important to feed them during this building period. Even if your bees have frames of honey from last year, keep feeding them.

The reason being, this weather is holding them in, keeping them from foraging, and gathering nectar and pollen. While we wait for better temps, we want them to build wax and feed the queen. Having sugar water “nectar” available to them, they will build despite the weather. This is what we want.


TIME TO RELEASE YOUR QUEEN

By the time of this posting, your queen has been in the cage for five days, it’s time to check if she’s still in the cage, and let her out if not. Some of you may have simply left the cork in the cage and put it into the hive. This is absolutely fine, but it’s tine to manually release her. If you replaced the cork with a marshmallow, she may have been let out already, but you should check.

GEAR NEEDED:
- Smoker
- Hive Tool
- Small screwdriver, tack, etc

CORK RELEASE
To release the queen, you may need something to grab the cork with, I use a small screwdriver, but a tack, fork, ice pick, etc will work. Basically you need something that can gently grab or turn the cork while it is in the cage.
STEPS:
1. Lift the hood and inner cover and LIGHTLY smoke. This means just one or two puffs from your smoker.
2. Set everything aside, grab your hive tool, and gently use it to move the frames apart and remove the queen cage
3. Inspect the cork to see how it is sitting in the cage. Sometimes it’s sideways, other times it’s blocking the entire opening.
4. Using your screwdriver/tack/etc, turn and remove the cork until you can grab it with your fingers.
5. Remove the cork, and immediately block the exit hole with your finger.
6. While keeping the exit hole blocked, replace the cage into the hive with the exit hole facing DOWN.
7. Replace the inner cover and close the hive up.

MARSHMALLOW RELEASE
If you used the marshmallow technique, and the queen is still in the cage, the release is similar to the cork release.

STEPS:
1. Lift the hood and inner cover and LIGHTLY smoke. This means just one or two puffs from your smoker.
2. Set everything aside, grab your hive tool, and gently use it to move the frames apart and remove the queen cage.
3. Holding the cage over the hive, check to see if the queen is still inside.
4. Be aware, sometimes worker bees get in, so be sure to take a moment to ensure you don’t mistake a worker for the queen
4. If the queen is not in the cage, you are all good. If she is in the cage, go to next step.
5. Using your fingers, remove the marshmallow, and immediately block the exit hole with your finger.
6. While keeping the exit hole blocked, replace the cage into the hive with the exit hole facing DOWN.
7. Replace the inner cover and close the hive up.

THANKS!

If you have ANY questions, please let me know. I’m always here to help!

Jason
Owner/Beekeeper

Jason Kardong