Getting My Honey Bees!

So Yesterday I went down town and got my Beekeeper's License. I could have very easily have done it through the mail, but with it being my first time, I wanted to make sure I knew everything there was to know. It was quite simple, there was no line whatsoever. I filled out my form, paid my 10 bucks and that was the end of that. I couldn't believe it was that easy!

Today Olivia and I went and picked my bees up. They came on a truck in little cages. All I had to do was walk around back and pick them up. I waited about 5 min in line, which was great because it gave me some time to watch what all the other people were doing when they got their bees.

As you can see they came with a couple of freebies or free bees :-).

When I went the day before to pay ahead of time and pick up a few last minute supplies I asked the lady about any 1st timer horror stories. I was trying to figure out what the worst case scenario was. She told me a story about a lady who had come with her boyfriend to pick his bees up. I guess she was wearing the wrong kind of perfume. The bees were highly attracted to it. She said the lady took off running down the street stripping her clothes off. I thought it was funny, but didn't sweat the details. When I got home Chad asked me how the bees got out? Hmmm? So when I picked my bees up today it became very apparent. There were bees in cages and tons of hitch hikers just swarming around. While picking up my bees it was kind of noisy, there were the outside noises, the people talking, and all sorts of other noises, so I didn't necessarily notice the buzz of the bees. After we got to the car and the quiet, then I heard the 7,500 bees a buzzing! I put the bees in the back and Livy and I in the front, but there were about 30 freebies just loose in the car. I was pretty happy to arrive home without incident!

The night before I made my 2:1 syrup and had my feeder ready, so when I got home I was all set to go. Getting the bees into the hive was not terribly difficult. I had watched tons of video tutorials to prepare and it went much like the tutorials. This video tutorial has been my favorite by far. Shaking the bees out of their cage took some nerve and a little self convincing, but all in all it went very smoothly. I didn't purchase a bee suit, because I figured I had plenty of white clothing. I did however get my veil and gloves. I was very carefully not to be clumsy or man handle the bees and it paid off, I didn't get a single sting. I can only hope that each further effort goes as smoothly.

I left the cage they came in close to the beehive entrance because there were a few leftover bees that I couldn't manage to shake out into the hive, but I think they're making it home!

The next step will be to medicate them with a little antibotics, but I need to wait 2 or 3 days first. The antibiotics come in a bag and look like powdered sugar, but with a yellow tint. I will mix it in with 2# of powdered sugar and then medicate them using 3 TBL of the concoction.