New Beehives !

On Saturday 17th Ashley, Andy and I hived 3 new beehives on our property. The 3 hives were Warre home made. Because these were my first hives, there are a few flaws I need to fix, the first one been the sump that is too small.
Andy and I also hived a colony in Sultan, at a friend's house, in a Langstroth.

Hive #1, in Gold Bar, is doing good, but need urgent care, since it hasn't been opened in the last 6 months. Swarming season is on, I better do something this weekend!

Hive #2 is the hive in Sultan, newly hived this Saturday (4/17).

Hive #3 is on my property, next to the house. I hived it on Saturday the 17th.

Hive#4 is on my property, North-East corner. Ashley hived it on Saturday the 17th.

Hive#5 is on my property, North-West corner. Andy hived it on Saturday the 17th.

Hive #3 had something really strange going on: many bees were congregating on the ground in front of the hive, and doing so since been hived. On Monday night, 2 days after been hived, I went to investigate after night fall. I used a stick, poking inside the cluster in the grass, to get 5-6 bees at a time, and deposed them on the landing board. They would act a little lost for a few seconds, then fan like crazy, with their rear up. After poking for half an hour, I realize that most of the bees were in that cluster. I continued until there were just a few bees left, and here I found the reason of all of this: One of the last bees I grabbed with the stick was ... the QUEEN !!! I guess the candy came of the cage when I removed the cork, and the queen fell of. She may have her wings clipped, which prevented her to fly off.
When I gently deposed her on the landing board, she walked over all the bees covering the board, and walk directly to the hive entrance, no hesitation at all, unlike all the other bees. I hope she will now make the hive her home.

Andy is building his own hive and will soon have a colony at his parents house.

All this is pretty exciting, despite the fact that we are all overwhelmed with all the things we need to take care off at the moment.Hopefully, things will settle down in the next few weeks.

My camera batteries are dead, I will post pictures later.