04/24/2026
This past Saturday morning, Dave went and picked up our 30 packages of bees. Together, we put each package into a hive. On Sunday, we went back and took out the package that was now empty of bees as they crawled out and are now making the hive their new home. We then placed the brood frames you see alongside the hives into the space the package was occupying.
We will continue to feed them sugar water in a 1:1 ratio until there is enough flowering plants for them to source nectar from. Typically this is mid-late May depending on the year.
We will also be checking to ensure that the queen is laying eggs and that they are bringing in pollen for the new bees when they emerge from each cell.
We will not be gaining new bees for 28 days. As it takes 28 days for a new bee to emerge from the time the queen lays the egg in the honeycomb cell. She will be laying between 1,200-1,500 eggs per day, so we will gain bees quickly as we get past the first month.
There are many different ways to place a new package into a hive. This is just the way that we have found works best for us.
