How to Get Bees for Your Hive
So you are contemplating purchasing your very own Backyard Hive, but you are a little confused as to how you populate it with bees. There are three main ways to accomplish populating your hive.
One is to contact a bee supplier and order a shipment of bees complete with a queen to be delivered to your home or the location of your hive. Another way, which is less expensive or sometimes free, and also saves a swarm of bees, is to contact your local exterminator or bee remover and get on a list of people who are interested in a swarm of bees to populate their hive. A third way is to catch them yourself, but you should feel confident in doing this one!!
A bee supplier is a reliable source for bees for your hive. A shipment of bees with a queen runs from $40 to $80 and there are many sources on the Internet. This method guarantees you will have bees in early spring to populate your hive and take advantage of all the nectar flows in your area. When you receive your shipment, follow the instructions in your shipment and take the queen cage out and place her in the hive in the cage. Shake as many of the remaining bees into the cage as you can, and place the box next to the hive. The bees will figure out where their queen is and migrate into the hive to be with her. This process usually takes an hour or so, at which time you can remove the box. Don't forget to free your Queen. The hive should be setup and ready to work.
If you contact a local exterminator, set up to have them call you if they get a swarm, and if you can go get it, you can have the bees. This is a less expensive or free way to find bees and populate your hive, as well as a good way to get bees that would otherwise be killed by the exterminator.
Take a cardboard box to the location and find the swarm. Once you have found it, usually on a branch or shrub, carefully locate the box under the swarm and give the branch a good hard shake to get most of the bees into the box. You can then place the box on the ground and wait for about an hour. If the queen is in the box, the remaining bees will fly to the box and be with the queen.
You can hear a difference in how the bees sound when the queen is in the box. If she isn't in the box, you can go back and give another shake, but be sure not to shake to much as it will agitate the bees. This should get her into the box. Take the box home and put the bees into your hive. Once most are in the hive, leave the box next to the hive so the rest will fly out and into the hive.
Your hive is now populated! Whichever method you have chosen to acquire your bees, enjoy!
The videos below show hive installation. The bees were delivered in 3lb boxes and have to be installed in their new hive.
They are in order.
Hive Installation. Part 1
Hive Installation. Part2
Sustainable Living Quote:
Failure to reverse trends that threaten future quality of life will steeply increase the costs to society or make those trends irreversible- European Heads of State and Government, Gothenburg, 2001