Bzzzz.

So when you order bees, this is how they come (as long as you don't get a nuc - which would include eggs and honey too). This set up just has a couple of pounds of bees and a queen - along with a can of sugar water for them to eat/drink on the drive.

Our bees came from an apiary (a bee breeder!) and they were delivered on a truck headed somewhere else today. Chad's dad went and picked them up (literally right off the truck near the highway!) and brought them to us earlier today and they were waiting at home for us when we got off work!

If you can see the little plate on the top - that is just a little piece of plywood that you pry off and you can access the screened in portion that way.

 You take the bees out to where you are going to put the hive...which is in our side yard next to the older hive. Here is Chad crossing the bridge to the side yard where the clover and bees live!

Once you pry off the plywood to get inside, you need to get the queen out and put her in the new hive. Here you can see Chad getting the smaller box out that houses the queen and putting it in the new hive. Once the queen is in the new hive, the other bees will go in there to protect her so it makes it easier.  

 Basically now all you have to do is dump the bees into the hive! It looks nuts but that is the best and easiest thing to do. The top of the hive is open and the bees just fall into it. Once you have everyone in there, you can put the lid on top. You can see that the other hive is much older and more mature. This is the 3rd year we will have it and Chad has already put on the extra honey supers so it is 5 supers (boxes) high.

So there you have it!  A short bee lesson for the day.

Chad did get stung more times today than he has before so we've already dosed him with Benadryl and checked for stingers and I promise I will keep an eye on him! The bees didn't like to be moved!