And More Busy-ness.....

Hello again everyone!

Last week was a bit hectic--some family issues popping up, with some difficult decisions to be made...and then just the general rigmarole of living in the city (it's a circus around here, I tell ya!) that has me running loopy all day. It doesn't help that I have lost a few clients whose animals I care for--so we will see. Money is tighter than ever, but such is life, right?

In the meantime, I've weeded our city plot garden and installed EVEN MORE bees on the roof! Yes, we have a mighty army of stingers working the city pollen sources.

These bees were not like our first hive--they are package bees and do not come with their own frames of honey or brood. And their queen is also new to them and must be kept in her own little travel box, whereas the nuc hive already has an established queen....so it's a different situation altogether.

Here are some pics of the day of installing (click to enlarge pics):

Here I am, getting into the bee suit (a.k.a. "the Zoot Soot")

That day, I was accompanied by my landlady's employees, and Dwain was taking photographs. Here is Amilcar...

And James....who I think was getting into the role just A BIT much...

Here is the OTHER James, my landlady's husband. He was taking video of the experience.

Here are the three beekeepers! Notice our lovely New York City skyline in the back!

And the stars of the show! THE BEES!

James helped me remove the package components. we had to take off a small piece of wood and remove the sugar water in a can, which came with the bees so they could eat. This is the round circle you see in the middle of the box of bees, above.

We then had to remove the queen cage, which is held on the top, to the side. You can't really see her well in the above image--because she is blocked by the attendant bees, which come with her. One of her workers has identified her and is sitting outside of the box to the left.

Once we removed the queen, it was time to pour the bees into the hive....

...Literally you pour and shake the box sharply down, in the air, to dislodge the bees from the box. The box is then left on its side so the remaining bees can find their way to the hive.

We then placed a top feed onto the hive, but we had to gently brush the bees off of the top of the frames so we could place the feeder on it.

Once the feeder was in place, we poured in some sugar water.

And then put the top cover over the whole thing! Yay! New bees are now here. By the way, we installed TWO of these hives so it was a big day!

More soon!