Geoff
House Bee
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2009
- Messages
- 249
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Shropshire, UK
- Hive Type
- Commercial
- Number of Hives
- 5
Yesterday I took delivery of two new queens - the postman always seems alarmed if the envelope buzzes.
So yesterday afternoon got them ready to introduce to the hive. First job is to remove the half dozen or so workers from the queen cage. I put the plugs in the bath and sink and sealed all the overflows with screwed up toilet roll so there was nowhere for an escaping queen to lose herself.I then got a large poly bag that I could put the cage and my hands in and opened each cage. Worked a treat this time. I did not have queens flying around the bathroom - they fly faster than worker bees. So I had two queens on their own in respective cages and about a dozen workers in free flight around the bathroom. As they had just been released from a travel cage they did what bees do in the first flight after winter, they evacuated their bowels. So I had brown spots all down the tiles, the sink and window sill. Took some wiping up. I never thought such little insects could hold so much in.
Just as well the missus wasn't around. She doesn't like bees in the house, never mind pooing bees.
So yesterday afternoon got them ready to introduce to the hive. First job is to remove the half dozen or so workers from the queen cage. I put the plugs in the bath and sink and sealed all the overflows with screwed up toilet roll so there was nowhere for an escaping queen to lose herself.I then got a large poly bag that I could put the cage and my hands in and opened each cage. Worked a treat this time. I did not have queens flying around the bathroom - they fly faster than worker bees. So I had two queens on their own in respective cages and about a dozen workers in free flight around the bathroom. As they had just been released from a travel cage they did what bees do in the first flight after winter, they evacuated their bowels. So I had brown spots all down the tiles, the sink and window sill. Took some wiping up. I never thought such little insects could hold so much in.
Just as well the missus wasn't around. She doesn't like bees in the house, never mind pooing bees.