The Bees Take Flight

I wasn't really sure what to expect after I did the dump and shake when I put the bees in the hive. What would I see the next morning? Would they be alive? Would I see any bees flying? Or would it just look like some purple wooden boxes sitting there?

The next morning, I peeked out the window to see if I could see anything. Unfortunately, there was a big Rhododendron bush in the way. So I snuck outside in my jammies to take a peek. On my purple-boxed hive, there were only a few bees around on the front. On the green-boxed hive (Rod's hive), there were quite a few bees around. I thought that for sure something was wrong with my hive. It was cold outside and so I decided to go in, get dressed, then come back out.

By the time I got back out, both hives had quite a few bees out. The bees were both on the front, on the landing, and flying around. They were coming and going, just like what I imagined they should be doing. I had stuffed some grass all along the front entrance, and some of that grass was now pushed away. Here is a video of what I saw and heard:

It was quite a relief to see they were out, flying, and that they were alive. Even though we took the class and the teacher talked about putting the bees in the hive, they really didn't say what to expect to see afterwards. I kind of imagined what a bee hive would be like later on, after it had been established, but had no idea what to expect at first.

I was also amazed at the amount of buzzing I heard! The bees were much louder than I thought they would be, and that was with only some of them flying. I think the buzzing will most likely get louder as more are out and about.

That first night, we decided to take the top off and see if the syrup feeders were working correctly, as well as remove the bee boxes the bees arrived in. So after all the bees were back inside the hives and it was starting to get dark, we put on our hats, veils and gloves (no suits this time) and went out to the bee yard. We lifted off the lids and it looked like the feeders were working fine. Inside Rod's top box, there was a trapped bee. He stuck out his finger, the bee climbed on, and then he lowered the bee down to near the entrance. And that bee just climbed off and went in the hive, just like he was suppose to. These bees already seem a lot smarter than I ever imagined they would be. It will be fun and interesting to watch and learn more about them as time goes on.