Bee Keeping

[short cut sally]

GLC, I think they recommend not to look for something like 10 days I read, but I have to open the pkged. brood box tomorrow to make sure the queen is out..per the bee seller. And I agree, we were told we should supplement their feedings all summer and winter too. As they are new and need all the help they can get in the first year. They make these big flat sugar blocks you can give over the winter, I might consider those. Like you, I too, don't plan on any honey this year. I am ready with the smaller honey supers and frames just in case, but not really expecting it. I don't plan on selling it unless I get a surpluss of honey, then it will be given away..maybe something like that x-mas fruit cake...
When we got the swarm, Chuck, said to leave the 2nd box on top and he set the almost full swarm container on top of the frames in the bottom brood box. They didn't want to leave that little box for nothing. DH the next day had no idea he was to remove the top box and put the lid on the bottom box. So that is where I've run into my mess. I was at work when he did this. (He's like a kid, can't leave anything alone). I ended up taking a few frames out of the bottom brood and setting the lid full of bees into the bottom brood where they belong. Hopefully they will figure out what to do. And I can put back the frames. Time will tell.
We just took a load of stone out to put down on the filter fabric. The pkged. bees were busy all over the hive. The swarm was so-so. After they settle in a little bit we are going to spread the stone. We wanted the stone before the bees arrived but it didn't work out that way.

[GLC1968]

That swarm thing sounds so cool. Do they look like the same type of bees as the ones you purchased?

We've noticed that our bees are kind of like our chickens in that when the sun goes low in the sky, they go inside. Maybe you could watch for a pattern like that in order to lay the rock? It's been unseasonably warm here for the past few days, so ours have been really active. The first time it was warm, we saw huge swarms around the front entrance. My H called our local bee guy to ask if that was ok and he said yes. That it was the bees' idea of 'hanging out on the front porch" on a hot day! I guess it gets warm in that hive, so they have to come out to cool off.

We put our hive in the center of our tiny orchard. It is surrounded by apple and pear trees that will give it shade from the midday summer sun, but it does sit on cinder blocks in the grass (that we leveled). So far, we've just been mowing around the hive with the lawn mower and the bees don't seem to mind at all. I think your idea of rock on weed cloth is a good one, though. I wish we'd thought ahead and done something like that. As it is, we spent weeks arguing about where the hive should go! I'm amazed we settled on a place in time for their arrival!