How can I (or should I) save my straggler bees?
We installed our first package yesterday and everything went pretty smoothly.
There were 100-200 bees still in the package box at the end, so we left it sitting close by the hive entrance for the rest of the day and overnight. This morning, there were dozens of dead bees around the area (at least they all looked pretty dead) but in the package box there was a cluster of perhaps 100 bees still. It was 40 degrees and with heavy rain predicted all day, I thought maybe I'd bring them inside and see if they warmed up.
Well they did warm up and now I have around 100 active bees "stranded" in my house (all still in the package box, and with a little bit of 1:1 provided) while it is pouring rain and in the 40's outside.
Can I reunite these ladies with the rest of the hive? If so, how chould I proceed? I could provide a feeding jar until the weather breaks, then put them back out next to the entrance....but not sure if that is realistic or prudent....thanks for any suggestions!
Dean great advice thank you and I think we would do that in the future for installations. I was able to get in touch with our HCBA mentor, Tom, who also provided some good advice. I ended up slicing the screen all the way open, then removing the cover just long enough to smack the package box on top of the feeding chamber and knock all the remaining bees into there. The cover was off for less than 10 seconds total, and all the bees are now in the hive. All's well that ends well!