For the hobby beekeeper who is managing a small number of hives, installing a package can be quick and easy. I’ve tried different methods and I like this one the best.
- Have your hive prepared in advance. Have your feeder ready. Make sure the entrance is open so bees can come and go.
- Remove five frames from one side of the brood box.
- Using a hive tool, pry off the protective board on top of each package.
- Remove the can of syrup from the package. This is sometimes tricky, but you can usually get it started with your hive tool.
- The queen cage is usually held in place with a metal tab that is slid into a slot in the wood. Remove the queen cage, brush off any adhering bees, and check to make sure the queen is alive.
- Gently place the package into the space left by the removed frames. Bees will start coming out of the hole where the syrup can was.
- Remove the cork from one end of the queen cage and stuff a piece of marshmallow into the hole. (If there is candy still blocking the hole you can skip this step.)
- Slide the queen cage down between two of the remaining frames—as close to the center of the hive as possible—and secure it in place. (I usually run a tack through the metal strip and into a frame.) If your frames have comb in them you can often just wedge the queen cage into the wax. The candy/marshmallow end needs to be up and the screened side of the cage needs to be unobstructed so the workers can care for the queen through the screen.
- Replace the inner cover. If you want, you can place the syrup can over the opening in the inner cover so the bees can drink the remainder. Place an empty super around the can.
- Replace the cover on the hive and you’re done.
The bees will soon leave the package and cluster around the queen cage, caring for her through the screen, and eating through the candy. You should leave them alone for two to three days. This is hard for new beekeepers, but you want them to adjust to their new home. In addition, too many disruptions at this stage may cause the bees to reject the queen, so just leave them alone.
On the third or fourth day, open the hive and make sure the queen has been released. If not, release her yourself. Take out the empty package, the empty queen cage, and return the five frames to the brood box.
Some caveats:
» Don’t wait longer than two or three days to remove the shipping package and replace the frames, or the bees will start building comb in the wrong places.
» If you don’t have frames of honey for your bees, they will need to be fed for a few weeks. An ample supply of syrup helps them with comb-building.
» If you want to use a baggy feeder, you will have to lay the bags on top of the inner cover instead of directly on the frames, since there won’t be enough room on the five remaining frames. Position the bags so they don’t block the hole in the inner cover. Put the spacer rim (small super) between the inner and outer cover, in order to make room for the bag of syrup. If syrup remains when you return to remove the shipping cage, handle the inner cover gently so the syrup won’t spill.
Rusty
a friend of mine installed his bees and put in the 10 plastic frames. When he checked the hive 4 days later he found the bees had built some of the comb out in a half ball shape. what should he do
Hi Kathy,
Just take the hive tool and cut it off. Bees will fill any space larger than about 3/8″ with comb. It’s often called bridge comb. Whenever it happens, you just cut it away. Just make sure the queen isn’t on it when you cut. Tell your friend to space the ten frames as evenly as possible in the box so he doesn’t have any extra wide spaces anywhere. Once his frames are covered with comb this won’t happen as often. But don’t worry about it; beekeepers frequently deal with bridge comb.
Thanks for writing,
Rusty
Met a lady the other day who said you’re supposed to kill the attendant bees that are in the queen cage or the package bees will kill the queen. Even though she once killed a queen herself, whacking away w/one eye closed, she still thinks you have to do that. (She also said all the boxes are called supers.) One of her colonies has made it 5 years straight, so she’s doing something right.
I’ve heard that bit about killing the attendants before. I never kill the attendants and I’ve never had a problem introducing queens. A lawyer once told me that using the wrong word or using the right word in the wrong way was a sign of muddled thinking. So when you are listening to a muddled, attendant-slaying, queen-whacking self-important bee-woman can you really believe her five-year story?
I started my first hive last year and want to start a second this year. Last year when I installed the package the queen was found dead outside the front of the hive on Thursday following the installation on Saturday. I installed the package like the instructions above except I held the cage in place with a rubber band and I replaced all frames after dumping in the bees. I was able to get another queen the next day and install her in the same manner and she has thrived.
My question, is there something I did wrong or should have done to keep my bees from killing the first queen?
Thanks,
Tim
Tim,
I don’t think you did anything wrong. Sometimes the queen can be defective, ill, or just plain weak and the bees won’t accept her. It was probably just an unusual situation that won’t happen again. Still, I can imagine getting “gun shy” about doing it again.
If you want, you can leave the cork in the queen cage for about 5 days and then release her manually if she looks healthy. You can tell almost immediately if they are accepting her. They will congregate around her to assist and groom her, but they should not bunch up on her or be aggressive. If they let her walk around and go where she wants, that is perfect.