What $72 can get you these days - 3#s of Bees

I got Bees!!!  This morning I got a call around 9 that my bees were ready to be picked up.  Unfortunately I hadn't quite got around to a few all important finishing touches on the hive, like oh say actually setting it up outside or a roof.  So I scrambled around for a couple hours to finish everything up.

improvised cedar shingle roof

All the Parts ready to go

Ready for bees

I went to the apiary ready to drive home in a cloud of bees, but they have the bees in these really nice little boxes, and there's not a spare bee to be found.

The installation was nerve wreaking, you have to open the lid of the bee box and hold on the string that's attached to the queen cage.  needless to say with all the bees flying around and the gloves on I dropped the cage into the bee box (which has a small opening).  eventually I got the cage out and then had to "pour" about three pounds of bees out of the box into the hive.  The bees were very patient with me through all of this. 

Within five min. or so they had settled in to their new home.  I left the queen in the cage for a couple of hours so they wouldn't move out.  

it took a little while for the bees to learn where the entrance is

First floor view

the swarm

I had to force myself not to spend the rest of the day watching them.  I've named the queen Ba‘alat Gebal after the Phoenician Goddess of the city of Byblos.