Wish me luck

[Mr Jinx]

Well its 3:34 in the morning on the day that I am collecting my first hive of bees and I am n ot sure if it's the excitement of getting started on what I hope is years of pleasure or the fact i am going to share 5 hours in a car with thousands of bees and the thought of them escaping is scaring the life out of me?

Either way my journey starts today ~ wish me luck and expect for me to be asking many question.

 

[666bees]

Good luck I'm sure you wil be fine. Dont forget if in doubt always ask a local experienced bee keeper and questions on here. You will have great pleasure watching them. I still do in my 2nd year. Excited today as I'm going to checked my q- colony for hopefully a mated new queen.

Chris

 

[Lance Hutchings]

Hiya Mr Jinks

Picked up my first hive just over a week ago from M******e, came VERY well packaged with wire mesh stapled over the front entrance and the holes in the crownboard. there were also large staples holding the floor to the brood box so all very secure.
One thing i would say though is let them settle for a bit once in the place you want them, they were a little angry when i opened up straight away from travelling ... NOT a mistake i will make again lol

Lance
ps Good Luck

 

[roymichaeldean]

Patience

Hi

I agree, leave them for an hour until they stop buzzing angrily, have a drink of tea....and all should go well.....
Good Luck

roy

 

[MrB]

I had mine in the car for 4 1/2 hours and no escapes!!
enjoy

 

[Lois]

If they do escape (yes that happened to me but not many luckily) they will make for the windows. A good way to lessen the risk is to wrap the box with an old sheet then they will just be in the sheet and not on your windows/ person!
The fun starts today. And it is great fun but really scary too.

 

[alynewbee]

Yay! Good luck with the ladies and hope you get a good night's sleep tonight. Aly

 

[Davelin]

Collecting mine tomorrow, exciting times!

 

[whizzwheels]

Had mine in the car for four hours and none escaped, but make sure they have ventaltion. Mine came in a box with an open mesh floor so made sure they had an air gap under the box and strapped the box down so it could not move around on the journey.
I also left them a good hour before removeing the extra block to let them have a fly round one they were in their new home.
I also left them a week in the travel box before I moved them to the new hive and also gave them a good feed.

 

[Mr Jinx]

The bees are here

Well I did it Peterborough to Ashwater in Devon with a very full hive on the back seat. We all arrived safe with only one small issue. When I went to pick them up there was 2 bees that had not got back in time so were effectively locked out.

No issue I thought as 2 out how many thousand I can cope with that asa loss. So we loaded the hive onto the back seat of the car and I then went to have a look at the other hives.

In the mean time I got two stow sways in the car and they did not make them selves known until I was on the motorway. However as said they headed for the window, thank god for electric windows - 70mph suck was too much for them to hold back shaker so it was good bye and good luck to those two aand the rest of us had an uneventful trip.


They settled almost instantly an I was aisle to re-assemble the hive in full

So the next chapter starts and still no stings. Well to date not much of a claim as less than 24hrs.

 

[Worldsend]

Have you joined your local association ?
we have been able to give all our new members swarms this year

 

[circe]

Enjoy your bees - And don't beat yourself up if you make mistakes - all beekeepers do - even the experts - the most important thing is to try and not repeat them.... This forum is excellent in providing top info from very experienced beekeepers and a bit of reassurance. Backup from a local BK group is also very helpful. I didn't have a mentor but I was fortunate to have a very kind experienced beekeeper who I knew I could phone for advice.