Transporting and care of bees

I anchored the bottom board to the bottom deep box with a short 1 x 4, I put gorilla tape over the entrance reducer. Also I took 3 ft long 1 x 4 for carrying handles and screwed them to the side of the bottom brood box. This can be a good setup for garage installing.

I removed the top box and feeder pail. Put the tele cover back on. Now I can carry this out of my garage and to my beeyard easier at a later date.

The 2 lb package bee pick up day will be this Saturday. Scroll down this page for pick up schedule. Please follow the pickup schedule it is the best way to quickly pass out bees. If everyone came at the same time it would take several hours to help you. When the pickup schedule is followed, the wait time is usually five minutes.
It will be cold when the bees come in. I don't like it either.
When you pick up your bees:

• Please no trailers
• Make sure your car is cleaned out
• Transport the bees inside the vehicle if possible
• Do not put them inside a small box or cover them, they can overheat and die
• They bees can ride in your backseat. Put down cardboard on the seat. The cages may be sticky.
• We do our best to brush the bees off the cages. 

Care at home
If you are not going to put the bees in right away, put the bees on a large piece of cardboard in your basement. Your garage may bee too cold. 60 degrees is perfect.

• Feeding bees in the cage can be done by spraying the cage with sugar syrup and a spray bottle. Spray the cage where the bees are clustered, you can see them clustered in the cage. Get the cage wet, don't drown them, top of cage and sides and walk away. Come back after 1/2 hour and wet the cage again, wait 1/2 hour and do it again. If the bees are not going in the hive right away, feed them twice a day.
• Feed the bees like this about two hours before they are installed in the hive. This will help the bees produce heat if their gut is full of syrup.
• You can keep the bees like this for about three days. After that you will start seeing dead bees in the bottom of the cage.

Installing bees in the garage. You can put your bees in a hive in your garage.

• Prep the hive by anchoring the bottom board to the deep box.This will make it easier to move later. Screw a 1 x 4 to the bottom board and the brood box. use about three screws in the bottom board and three screws in the brood box. Do both sides of the hive. Or, search my blog for moving hives and look at the picks on how I anchored the box and bottom board together.
• Have your entrance reducer in. Duct tape across the entrance, totally covering the entrance reducer. Do a Red Green tape job. You want to make sure the bees stay in the hive.
• Install the bees. No spray if it is cold in the garage. 
• Move the bees outside in a few days when it warms up to the forties. 
• Take the feeder pail off and remove the top box, put the cover back on, when moving the bees to their outside location. It is easier to move them in the one deep box.
• I screw 2 - 1 x 4's about 4 feet long to both sides of the deep box. This creates two lifting handles and two people can easily move the box together.