# 005 : Madames & Sirs, the Bees have arrived

“Seeke out ye goode in everie man, and speke of alle the beste ye can; then wil alle men speke wel of thee and say how kynde of hearte ye BEE”

Geoffrey Chaucer 

Well, it involved seven hours of driving (total) but I picked up my package of bees and installed them.
No help from Ronald - he had to take his mom to buy corned-beef from some place on the South Side. Hello Ronald family! There are plenty of Irish people living on the North Side of Chicago ... Including yourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't give me the crap that you couldn't find a place near where you live - you live in an Irish neighborhood for cryin out loud!!!

Here's the place his Ron's mom swears by for corned beef :

4701 W. 63rd St. (right by Midway Airport)
Chicago, IL 60629
Phone: 773-767-4353
Website: winstonsmarket.net 

Even though Ronald bailed, I don't think installing the bees could have gone any smoother. As you can see from the image below there was a bit of rain. But it stopped long enough for me to get my bees into their new home. I bought the bees from this place :

Long Lane Honey Bee Farm :

The bees are freaking beautiful. They are a nice golden brown and are not aggressive at all.

Here's an image of everything loaded into the 2005 Prius! Easy, plenty of room for another hive! Hello! HA!

I bought two deeps and two medium supers just in case the bees make lots of honey. You can see the package of bees inside one of the deeps getting acquainted with their new home!

After the 3+ hour drive back I unloaded the gear and bees and made my way to the roof.

But before I did that I couldn't help but put the bees on a friends desk. She hates bees - well, she hates hornets but she can't tell the difference between a hornet or a bee so she claims to hate bees. Hello! Honey Bees have fur! I snapped a photo to let her know the bees were sitting on her desk! I hope it freaks her out a little! No I'm joking. I hope she gets a little laugh out of it. I blurred out the images of her friends and boyfriend because something tells me she wants to have nothing to do with this blog!

Back to the bees: Here is a video showing how to install bees : Simple, simple, simple

This video was done by the guy who sold me the bees so everything I had was exactly the same. You might have a different Queen Cage with workers in it so that procedure might be slightly different if that's the case.

 Below is a video showing the procedure if you have a Queen in a wood box instead of the plastic cage.

This guy is soooo calm and makes it look so easy - which it actually is!

This is the first time I've installed bees alone. It was so easy I almost thought I did it wrong.

I'll find out in five days when I check on my bees.

Here is an image before I went at it. I propped the base board on top of some brick so water wil drain around the hive and not into it!!!! That is the deep on the bottom board. I gave the bees a good spray of sugar water (1 part sugar 1 part water) which made them fly around less when I pulled the can and Queen out. They were too busy cleaning each other to mess with me. I wore a beekeepers veil and gloves just in case. I just couldn't do this without gloves.

I used the hive tool to pry out the can of sugar food. It was just about empty. These bees have a good appetite. I only had a few dead bees on the bottom of the box. That was a good sign that the bees were healthy. I then took the queen out and covered the hole so no bees would fly out. I followed the video exactly so no use writing about it!

Well here's my start-up hive. There were still some stragglers in the box so I propped it up next to the hive opening so they can find their way into the hive at their leisure - common hurry up! I'm joking, I didn't yell at them. Last time I checked there were still a few in there picking away at the sugar syrup that was left at the bottom. I noticed a bit of in out action from the hive hole but nothing too alarming - it looked very calm and natural. I put a little bowl of water with rocks next to the hive so they could drink if they were thirsty from their trip. I'm not sure how long they were in that box!!!

This was a really fun day! It would have been easier if Ronald didn't bail!

Here's Ronald riding on a roller coaster backwards!!!!!

He is embarrassed by this photo which is why I'm posting it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You bail again Ronald and you know what's comin!!! HA!! Just kidding.

Get yourselves some bees everybody! Hope the pictures were a OK...

I need to take a shower, put some hair mousse in my hair and splash on some Drakkar noir cologne because I'm goin dancin and Ronald is setting me up with his cousin Bertha!!!

She's gonna love the bee stories!

FINGERS CROSSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!