Today, I got my bees! We got a call from the post office at around eight, saying that a package of bees had arrived for us. So, we drove down after breakfast and picked them up.
There were two bees outside the package, oddly enough. One flew out the window on the way home, but the other stayed on and is now probably in the hive asleep. But that's me getting ahead on the story. Once I got home, I consulted my trusted copy of Beekeeping for Dummies and found I had to wait until the afternoon to hive my bees. So, I sprayed the bees with water, and later sugar water for food, and put them in a cool, dark place. And waited.
Finally, it was late enough to hive the bees, so I started up the smoker, got on my gear, and after several false starts, went up to the hive.
While Mama read off instructions, Anna videotaped, and Papa watched from a distance, I pried off the top and removed the can of nectar and the queens cage. The queen was fine in her tiny screened box, as were her attendants, who feed and clean the queen. Next, I removed half of the frames in the hive, and added the queen cage. Then I tried to shake as many of the bees as I could into the hive and put on the cover before they could fly away. The bees I had gotten inside started "fanning" (which is where some of the bees stand at the entrance and fan their wings to spread a homing scent for the other bees), so I knew they would all find their way to the hive... I hope.