Eighth of an Acre Bounty

Late Wednesday night we got the call that the bees would be in early and available on Thursday after 11. The two day early arrival of the package was actually a case of very good timing as Thursday was apparently the last somewhat sunny day we are scheduled to have for a while. We drove out to pick up the package and despite a run-in with a russian speaking proslyetizer who pressed upon us a dvd that expounds upon the “Dangers of Evolution” we made it back safe and sound, bees in tow.

After suiting up and starting the smoker we installed the package. No pictures of that part as it was all hands on deck. The bees were very courteous and gentle. No stings or angry swarms. We never even used the smoker on them (to tell the truth, I couldn’t see the rationale on using it when they didn’t have honeycomb to flee to). They took a good part of the afternoon to make it into the hive, and several little clusters attempted to overnight on the fence. With our nighttime temperatures still in the low 40s, those that didn’t go in the super didn’t really make it. A bit of natural selection going on I suppose.

Yesterday it was rainy most of the day, but the minute the temperature popped up above 53 and the rain stopped, there was a flurry of activity. They currently seem to be very preoccupied with a few areas on the boxes. We can’t yet tell if they are trying to proplyze and seal up the cracks or if there is something else going on.

I have to say I am fabulously entertained by them. I could stand out there watching them for hours. We may need to rethink our current location but are going to wait a bit to see how they settle in. Right now the total number of bees just hanging about the vicinity of the box is likely to put a bit of fear into any guests of ours who aren’t as smitten as we are with the little critters, but I suspect when the pollen and nectar really start flowing they will be spending much less time worrying about the outside of thier house. We will see – here goes another experiment!