Retrieving the Feeder

I know I said I wasn't going to post again until next weekend, but it's supposed to rain on Sunday, and I really want to get that sugar syrup feeder out of the hive!

So...
This morning I opened the hive at about 6:15 am to retrieve the feeder I had placed inside when I installed the bees.  The books tell you to open hives during the late morning hours, when workers and foragers are out flying.  I figured the bees would be fairly inactive this early, even though the temperature was just over 60 degrees (bees don't fly when the temps are below 57 degrees), and I have to go to work!  So I put my veil and gloves on and out I went.  No smoker. Just a spray bottle of sugar water to spritz them with.

The bees were fairly docile when I first opened the hive.  I gave them a few squirts of sugar water to keep the busy while I worked.  I took out several top bars from the uninhabited section of the hive, and moved the follower board over.  Then I was able to start moving top bars in the active portion of the hive.  The bees had started to glue everything together with propolis, a gummy substance they make from plant resins.  I carefully pried the top bars apart with my hive tool, and moved them over to make room so I could reach in and get the feeder.  I found that the bees have started to make more comb on top bars #9 through #13, in addition to the comb I found Sunday on top bar #14.  I was able to retrieve the feeder, and I saw the empty queen cage at the bottom of the hive, so I reached down and got that as well.  With the sun shining on us, and the temps steadily rising, the bees were starting to get active, and a few were even getting a little defensive, so it was time to close things up.  I removed three top bars from the active section of the hive that the bees had yet to work on, thus reducing the open space inside the hive.  Once they've fully built out comb on 8 of the 11 top bars they have, I'll move the follower board over and give them more room.  The whole process took me about twenty minutes, so no foul, no harm!  Once again, I didn't get stung!

Here's a picture of the feeder I've been trying to get out of the hive.  It's just a chick feeder from the farm store with some hardware cloth fitted inside the dish so the bees don't drown. I'll fill it with a 1:1 sugar:water solution and replace it on the cribbing outside the hive.  I probably don't need to, but I haven't seen any bees on the sugar cake I put in, and I know they like the syrup, so they'll have some extra food, just in case.

Here's a picture of the package the bees came in.  3 - 4 lbs of bees with about 3500 bees per pound.

And here's a picture of the cage the queen and her three attendants came in.  It was suspended inside the package next to the tin can (which contained sugar syrup for them to eat during their trip).

Now that I know the queen has escaped her cage and is establishing herself in the hive, and I've gotten the feeder, I can leave the bees alone to do what they do!  I'm marking my calendar to recheck the hive a week from Sunday.