Wow.  Did this topic ever cause some flash backs......and not 
necessarily good ones.  Our season is short on the Canadian Prairies and 
as we all know, no matter what you do, it takes 21 days to make a bee.  
You've got to get those cycles in before the flow so you shook 2 
pounders in late March/early April and 3 pounders after April 20th.  We 
can have "dumps" of snow and stretches of days well below freezing right 
up to the end of May (Allen not so much, cause he's down in the banana 
belt). If you were around before the border closed, you've definitely 
hived bees in snow, sleet, mud, rain or a combination.

Besides shaking my own and working with a few of the biggest producers 
in Alberta during the late 70s & early 80s, I also acted as a package 
distributor for a local bee group for a number of years.  That was very 
insightful and Garret you've done the right thing by asking for advice.  
Many before you have not been so wise and paid for their cleverness.

Allen has covered it pretty well from my point of view, but I will 
comment on a couple things I've read so far.

Dunking combs in syrup really doesn't work that well.   The cells air 
lock.  For a small number (couple hundred) of frames use a garden 
sprinkler can or hand sprayer (slightly slower) on the face of the comb 
over a barrel or tub.  This should be done where you are going to be 
hiving the pkgs.  If it is cold do notdrop the frames back into the box 
after you've shaken the package in.  You will soak the bees.  This works 
great on warm nights when you have everybody crawling, but not so good 
when it's cold.

Shake the bees out of the package.  In freezing temperatures bees will 
be quite happy to stayed tightly clustered in the cage and parish.  This 
method of letting them crawl out was in one of the bee books for a while 
(may still be). Every couple years someone would do this in cold weather 
and need replacement pkgs on the next truck.  Great for those of us 
reselling.

Release the queen.  In cold temps, I have seen bees abandon a caged 
queen for food or heat.  One newbie lost 103 out of 104.  At least at 
that time they were only about $6.00-$6.50 and more importantly that 
year, replacements were available immediately.

If you feed syrup on top with a dummy super in cold weather, use an 
inner cover!  You need to hold the heat down on the combs. Again, I've 
seen colonies severely chilled when the beekeeper just let the heat 
escape up into the dummy box.

If the option exists when you receive your pkgs, it is best to decide 
right away about the whether you will be hiving inside or out.  I have 
held pkgs, but always felt that those we got onto comb sooner (within 36 
hours) than later, did better.  If you are just at freezing or slightly 
below, with Environment Canada (gag) predicting the same or improving, I 
would go outside. If conditions are deteriorating, I would hive inside.  
If you can hold your inside temperature around 0C, you wouldn't need to 
be concerned about the lighting, but you will need to move them out 
before the space warms up much  (remember bees generate heat; on comb 
with syrup a lot of heat to the point you may have to open doors or 
windows)  One year we hived 500 in a machine shop before a 3 day spring 
blizzard.  At the the end of 3rd day when the wind was dieing down, we 
pushed out a couple spring yards and moved the hives out that night.  By 
noon the next day the ground was drying out around the pallets and the 
bees started making cleansing flights.  They were in awesome shape.

Best of luck
Dave Tharle
Ardmore, AB
Canada


             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm