Preparing for Package Bees

   Things have been pretty busy down at the Beez Neez. We have been taking lots of orders for package bees, assembling equipment, and trying to be ready for the annual craziness of package bees.  I have two different friends who are each loopy enough to want to drive down to California with me to pick up the package bees.  The impending package bee week is forcing me to clean up my act at the store and get at least part of the store organized and ready for the bees.

   I really miss Quentin, a former employee who moved back to Wyoming this past year.  Quentin is really good at organizing stuff, not so much my strong suit. However, I don't begrudge him moving back home to take care of his aging parents.  I have replaced him with a total of four part time employees; two adults who are seasonal, and two teenagers who are also seasonal but weren't intended to be.  The two adults, David and Mike, are both very knowledgeable about bees so that has made my life much easier. One of the boys hurt his leg playing basketball and just had surgery two weeks ago on April Fools Day.  I have lost his services for about a month. The other boy is doing track so is also temporarily not available.  I hope to have both of the young men back before the start of summer. I will lose at least one of the part time adults some time in May.

    We have a new shirt on order for the package bees.  It's patterned after a T-shirt my daughter had silk screened for me.  It has a drawing of a queen bee on the front with the inscription, "All hail the Queen".   I'm doing this one strictly as a girl's shirt in pink or gray. I'm hoping it to sell well.  I will add a photo of the shirt as soon as they arrive.

   I've also been busy getting my own hives in order. I have been going through my deadouts,  replacing old brood comb and repainting boxes, bottom boards, and lids while they are not occupied by bees.

   I was fortunate enough to have a day off on a warm day two weeks ago in which I was able to go through my surviving bee hives.   One hive had just five frames of bees, but had four frames of capped brood.  It was a one deep hive so it was a ticking time bomb as far as population explosions go.   The four frames of capped brood translate to about 12 frames of newly emerged bees over the next 12 days. I knew they needed a second box within the next week or so.  Six days passed before I hit another day off warm enough for me to open the hive.  In just six days they had gone from five frames of bees to almost ten frames of bees.  I was able to add the second box in the nick of time.  It is amazing how fast a beehive's population can grow in the spring. I could have merely slapped a second box on a week ago, but I wanted to prep the frames first and I wanted to redo some of the frames in the lower deep box.  I use plastic foundation and the bees do a much better job drawing out the comb if a little extra beeswax is added to the frames. Without the extra wax, sometimes they draw the comb out a little funny.  The frames I needed to replace were ones that hadn't been properly prepped.