QUEEN BEE ESCAPES !!

I finally got the third hive installed yesterday, but not without a wierd problem.  I had everything in place to put the last bee package into the last hive, and brushed the bees off of the queen cage.  Normally, you pull out the cork in the candy end, and there is still the candy plugging the end of the queen cage.  Then you insert this cage between a couple of frames and during the course of a few days the queen eats herself out and goes into the hive.

Problem is, I took the cork out, and there WAS no candy in it.  The queen crawled out, and FLEW!!  My-O-My was I upset.  I partially covered the top of the hive in case she wasn’t in there and wanted to come back, and made a frantic phone call to the people I ordered the bees from.  Worry, worry, worry.

My bee hive setup.

They told me that they had run out of regular queen cages, and this one was called a “California cage”.  No candy in this one.  The way I was supposed to put the queen in was to take the cork out and immediately put my thumb over the opening to prevent her from escaping.  Then I was to push the cage into the front of the hive and let her crawl into the hive.  Gee, I would have never figured that one out.

Anyways . . . he said that I should observe for three days, and listen to see if they were keeping a low hum instead of an upset hum.  If not he’s see about getting me another queen.  Okay, now I know what to do here.  That did help, and I calmed down.

Now you know how that one goes . . .