Installing a Package
Are you ready to set up your new hive, including the queen?
BY KRISTINA MERCEDES URQUHART
After you pick up your bees from the post office or other place of delivery, look the package over for any issues and inspect the bees to make sure they are alive and in good health. According to David Tarpy, a professor in the department of entomology at North Carolina State University, “It is normal to have about 1 inch of dead bees in the bottom of the box.”
CHIOT’S RUN/FLICKR
Gently remove the queen cage from the hole in the top. Shake hangers-on from the outside of the cage.
ROB LARSEN/FLICKR
Many beekeepers around the United States consider ordering a package of honeybees the only way to get a hive started. Whether you live far from other beekeepers, are just starting out, or live in an urban setting with no apiaries nearby, a package is an easy-to-ship and compact starter kit with everything you need to start keeping bees the very day they arrive.