>> My new packages will be arriving in about a week to 2 weeks.
>> Does anyone have any suggestions for hiving the new
>> packages despite being 35 degrees and cloudy...

Take a look at http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/2000/diary040100.htm
and you will see bees installed in a snowstorm, with no adverse effects
on the bees.  (The beekeeeprs were chilly though).

As long as you have drawn comb, with some -- a pound or two minimum --
feed in it in the brood chamber, and as long as you dump the bees out of
the package into the hive, (do not set the package into the hive) and as
long as you direct release the queen, you should have 100% success.  The
only other thing to watch is that the package does not get chilled
awaiting installation.

If you do things otherwise, you're on your own.  There are a lot of
wrong ways to do this job.  Most of them work some of the time, but have
serious drawbacks under other conditions.

Again, the BEE-L archives have a lot of good info, plus some painful
tales from those who used risky methods and weren't lucky.

Good luck.

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com

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