The bees are here!

The package bees arrived Thursday.  I called the post ofc. and asked them to hold the bees at the P.O., but the carrier delivered them anyway.  Fortunately, it was a cloudy day, because the afternoon sun really beats into our porch in the afternoon, sufficient to smother a bunch of closely packed, agitated bees.  But they are fine, happily settling into their new homes.
 This photo shows the shipping cages they came in.   The sticks on top held the two cages about 3 inches apart, so air could get to both (I had to break the sticks to get them apart.  Each cage held 3 lbs. of bees - several thousand - and a queen in a separate cage to ensure she traveled safely.  The big hole had a little can of sugar syrup so they wouldn't get hungry, and it was held in place with a piece of cardboard stapled over the top.


 The bee yard looks a little cluttered from here.  The first hive is one of the new ones.  They are working on building their comb in the white box.  The tan box has a big tub of syrup, which will let them build up quicker than if they had to go visit flowers.
There is an empty hive just beyond the first hive, and then the other package bee hive.  Beyond that is the Africanized beehive which I have to move out of the city, and it has some black plastic tubs with beeswax in them.  I was hoping they would get hot enough to melt and purify the wax, but not so.