Yes, I did say I was going to wait until Thursday to move things around in the hive but I figured the earlier I did it, the less disruptive it would be. I got home from work at a reasonable time, it finally stopped raining, and it's starting to warm up slightly. When I went to the hive I had the intention only to feed them and leave them alone, but they hardly ate any of the food I'd put in yesterday and the comb was progressing nicely so it seemed okay for me to go ahead and release her. The instructions did say in 3-5 days, after all.
The bees were fairly active, starting to come out of the hive again. After some consideration about the bees-in-sleeves problem, I hit upon using long surgical gloves into which I could tuck the cuffs of my overalls. The gardening gloves fit over the surgical gloves and all this allowed for some extra protection. It worked quite well. Although, at one point, my shoe and sock were COVERED with bees, but they didn't sting me, and I managed to brush them off after a little bit.
I slid the combs forward to the front of the hive, as instructed from the information I got from Back Yard Hive, and moved the false back to the actual back. Once I finally got everyone settled, I moved the feeding dish a little bit back away from the combs, and released the queen. She didn't seem to want to get off of her box, so I left the whole thing in the back of the hive and I'll take it out later. By the time I get back in there, in a few days, she should be busy on the comb. Hopefully, at the same time I'll be able to remove the feeding dish.
Now I'm going to leave them and let them do their thing. I should be checking on them every few days, but just through the window whenever possible.
The bees were fairly active, starting to come out of the hive again. After some consideration about the bees-in-sleeves problem, I hit upon using long surgical gloves into which I could tuck the cuffs of my overalls. The gardening gloves fit over the surgical gloves and all this allowed for some extra protection. It worked quite well. Although, at one point, my shoe and sock were COVERED with bees, but they didn't sting me, and I managed to brush them off after a little bit.
I slid the combs forward to the front of the hive, as instructed from the information I got from Back Yard Hive, and moved the false back to the actual back. Once I finally got everyone settled, I moved the feeding dish a little bit back away from the combs, and released the queen. She didn't seem to want to get off of her box, so I left the whole thing in the back of the hive and I'll take it out later. By the time I get back in there, in a few days, she should be busy on the comb. Hopefully, at the same time I'll be able to remove the feeding dish.
Now I'm going to leave them and let them do their thing. I should be checking on them every few days, but just through the window whenever possible.
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