Moving Bees Continued...

Sorry, I dropped you for a bit.  I am still trying to recover from my bee moving experience.  Literally trying to recover.  I have bruises up and down both legs where I used my thighs for leverage in picking them up and setting them down.  Also, I have re-aggravated a wrist issue that has proven to be more than a little bit of a pain.  I have learned that I can be a ridiculously, grumpy patient.  Apparently, I do not do very well when I am limited in my daily activities.  More to the point, it makes me down-right cranky.  We aren't going to linger on these topics, because today, I am refusing to participate any longer.

After moving those ridiculously large hives, I did crash.  I slept very well that night.  I also drank a large mug of our Sweet Dreams Tea and barely made it to the pillow.  If you have a hard time sleeping, you should give it a try.  Once the alarm went off the next morning, I jumped right up.  This was immediately followed by a low, muttered, ouch!  It has been a long time since I was physically that sore.  I had a few chores to get done that morning before the Brown truck showed up, and there was no time to waste.  The bad news, the weather was not cooperating.  The wind was blowing about 40 mph, and it was cloudy and very muggy. 

To my surprise, my delivery was here at about 9:30 in the morning.

Funny, but why is it, the first thing upon receiving a package, you shake it?  Not always a great idea, but a good thing that the queen breeders realize our bad habits.  This package did not make a sound.

Reason being, these little queen cages were glued to the inside of the box to prevent them from moving around in transit.

I really wish I had taken a couple more shots of this because it is hard to see what is going on here.  You see the cork in the ends facing us, behind that, under the white square is a solid piece of candy.  What kind?  Do not know, but on the other side is the queen and a few attendant bees.  You could see that they had been eating the candy on their side.

Basically, it went like this...

I loaded up all my stuff, queens included, and headed out to the new hives.

Upon arrival, I could tell that the fence panels I had placed around the hives were a little wonker.

What is going on?

The cows in the pasture decided to use my panels and my new hives to scratch their necks.

I knew there was a reason I really love brisket.

To say that I freaked out a little would be an understatement.

No pictures.

Sorry.

I immediately jumped out and began righting the fencing and the hives.

The bees were a little more than upset.

Not only did they wake up in a new location, but there was an earthquake as well.

What? 

Is this California?

Send me back to Texas...quick!

Funny, but I can totally relate to that sentiment.

Yes, I used to live in the crazy state.

Sorry.

Squirrel!

A lot of squirrels running around here lately since my Full-Timer came back home.

Inside joke.

Back to the bees...

I quickly worked through the hives, trying to make sure that I did not have any queens in those boxes.

I removed the cork on the end, then placed the cages in the brood boxes.

Then the process starts.

The workers eat through the candy.

All the while, they are getting used to the pheromone of the new queen.

Once they get all the way in, all is well in their world.

All hail the Queen!

The end!