The Bees have arrived

Much to my delight, my neighbor set up a beehive.  This is the queen.  She comes in a small box with a cork on the end.  The little box is attached in between the racks.  Would you believe that the cork is replaced with a marsh mellow? The queen slowly eats the marsh mellow and then has access to the hive.

This is what 3 lbs of bees looks like.  They come in this crate from Oregon.  There is no assurance that the bees will stay in the hive you give them.

After half of the racks are placed in the box, the bees are placed in their new home.

Putting the rest of the racks into the box before tacking the Queens tiny crate in place.

That's a lot of bees.  Although my neighbor was wearing long gloves, he didn't have on any other protective gear that you might expect a bee keeper to wear. The three of us watching the bee process didn't have any protection, and while some of the bees would land on us, disoriented from coming out of their travel cage, no one was stung.   A bee will travel up to 4 miles, so there is no excuse for them not to fly  the 50 feet or so over the fence to pollinate in my yard.  Expecting a good year.  There is a lot of bee activity in my yard now.