>>Waldemar, I'm not sure how many of the club members have drawn comb and being difficult to tell how long this weather system will last. Could be three day's or more from the time the packages arrive. How long do you think the bees can be kept confined as you describe?

I have done this several times in the early spring or late fall.  Never had to keep a hive indoors for more than a few days.

If I were interested (or forced by the weather) to keep the hived bees indoors for some time, I'd hive them per the previous procedure and keep them about 60-70 F for the first day.  I'd also put a couple of 1/4" sticks right above the suspended queen cage and the sugar water jar on the sticks.  The bees would then swarm around the queen cage and the jar.  I would drop the temperature to ~40 deg. after the 1st day.

I would do this even with foundation.  The bees would still draw the cells out, store some syrup, and the queen would start laying shortly after being released.  If you keep the temp. low enough, the bees will go about their normal hive activities without needing to take cleansing flights.  If the bees are not sick (diarhea, nosema), you could keep them like this for a month or longer (just give them a protein source).

I'm pretty sure about this although never had to do it myself.  Just keep the temperature low.   If the temp is kept high, they will be chomping at the bit to get outside and could start staining the inside of the hive.  It's imperative to prevent this from happening.    

>>Someone has suggested leaving them in the packages in a warm dark spot along with feeding syrup until the weather changes. What are your thoughts?

Same as hiving above.  You can keep them confined for long if fed, dark, and cool.  The problems with keeping them in the package box are:

1. they will start drawing wild comb
2. the syrup can in the package is small - might have to brush the package screens with syrup daily
3. the queen can't start laying for a while

You could but I would not keep a package unhived for more than a week.

Waldemar











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