Day 1

Over the last couple of months I've gotten my hive boxes ready and painted them, anxiously awaiting my bees. Yesterday I received my bees and installed them in the hive. I got a 3# package of Italian bees with a queen. The queen comes separately in a little box with a candy stopper in the end which the bees excavate to release her. You hang the queen's box in the hive and open the other box of bees. I hear there are roughly 11000 bees in 3 pounds. I didn't count them. I'm not sure what kind of music bees like but they strike me as jazz lover's. The first song we listened to on the way home was "Beyond the Sea" and followed it up with a bunch of Ray Charles. They seemed content.
The queen is not free yet but they have started to eat the candy away and draw out the combs, both of which are good signs. They don't seem aggressive, thank goodness, and I haven't been stung yet. When she is free, which may take a couple of days, she will begin laying eggs and the colony with grow to somewhere around 50000 to 60000 bees over the couple of months. That's a lot of bees. I just checked on them today and they are buzzing around and seemingly in good spirits. My biggest goal now is to make sure they live out the year. I am currently feeding them sugar syrup but should be able to stop that after they have become established and more nectar is flowing. Won't be much, if any honey this year but if I can keep them alive next year should be sweet. Up to now it hasn't been too difficult and not too expensive. If you are considering it as a hobby, go for it.

Thanks for the ear,
-mitch