Tips to Keep your Package Bees from Leaving

How to know, how many kg of honey i have

If you are a beekeeper or have knowledge about it, you might also know a little about package bees. You can’t travel to forests and hunt for bees so that you can capture them and then start beekeeping. Bee packages are containers of bees which you can install into your hive for beekeeping. These packages have sugar syrup so that the bees inside can stay alive. Every package consists of a queen bee and some worker bees. But a problem which most of the beekeepers face is keeping the package bees from leaving.

Steps to prevent that from happening:

How to know, how many kg of honey i have

1. Make a Familiar Environment

Bees won’t stay somewhere they don’t feel like home. For them, going into a wooden box is a strange feeling at first. So later, when they get a chance, they leave. It may happen more in a new. Wooden box. However, it can be prevented by simply applying beeswax to the surface of the wooden box. You can either rub it inside or place a candle of beeswax so that when the bees are inside the box, they feel familiar conditions and comfortable. 

How to know, how many kg of honey i have

2. Feed Them Properly

When you don’t feed someone properly, they won’t stay for much longer. It is the same with bees. You need to keep feeding them properly to keep them happy and satisfied so that they don’t leave. You have to be very careful with the amount of sugar and water that you are providing. The ratio for both should be equal. You can relax about feeding them once they have enough comb ready and have stored sufficient amounts of honey to survive through the winter. 

3. Queen Bee Factor

Queen bee is the mother of all bees. She is the one that lays eggs inside the hive. For laying eggs, she needs a comb. But in a new box, when you leave the bees and queen bee together, she won’t have a comb prepared for her. That is why you should hold onto releasing your queen bee till the very last moment until her comb is ready. This would dramatically decrease the chances of bees from leaving the hive. 

How to know, how many kg of honey i have

4. Artificial Comb

You can also add a comb which is dark and drawn inside the frame of the box. When the queen lays eggs, the combs naturally tend to get darker. Darker combs release pheromones inside bees which makes them feel safe inside and encourages them to stay. This would be an impossible task for a newbie since they don’t have access to any other beehive. You can still buy it off some other beekeeper. 

5. Uncapped Brood 

You can add a frame with capped and uncapped brood in it. This is probably the most effective way of compelling the bees to stay. No group of bees would ever leave an uncapped brood alone, even when they are not their own. 

Conclusion

You can keep your package bees from leaving your hives by following the above steps. At the beginning, it could be little tricky to handle them, but with time things will be easier for you.