Queen release and feeding sugar syrup in Spring

On the advice of an experienced beekeeper, we went into the hive on Monday and released the queen from her cage. It was Adrian's first look into the colony, and he admitted it was a bit daunting to see and hear all of those bees in one place . The few flying about the entrance holes were non-threatening and less of an issue - he's come a long way in dealing with his natural fear of stinging, flying insects. Though I have gardened side-by-side with bees for years, there is something to be said about having thousands of them flying around you in an agitated manner - even seeing a solid mass of them inside the hive and listening to their noise level is a real experience.

I had put a small piece of marshmallow in the exit hole of the queen cage (many such cages already have a candy plug to be eaten and removed by the workers, but ours had none).  The premise is to slow down the queen's release and give the colony a bit of time to adjust to being in a new hive, and to make sure the queen doesn't leave and take your bees with her. The girls seemed to be having some difficulty in removing the candy, and a small number of bees were clustering on top of the cage to care for and keep the queen warm.  Because the temperature can still be a bit chilly when the sun goes down, I didn't want to risk leaving them to handle the release on their own. I pried out most of the candy, and placed the cage back into the hive.

We've observed the bees bringing in some pollen over the last few days, but they have also taken advantage of the pollen patty and the sugar syrup I've placed in the hive to help them before the flowers in the area are in bloom. In future, I hope to leave the bees enough honey of their own to feed them through the winter and into the next Spring, but they have definitely needed the assistance with no stores or even comb of their own.

After reading multiple, often conflicting recipes on how to prepare sugar syrup, I went with the following Springtime recipe:

- 20 cups water, brought to a boil and removed from the heat
- 1 heaping Tbsp of dry Thyme and three bags of Chamomile Tea, steeped for several minutes and then strained out
- 20 cups of sugar (granulated, white, cane) stirred into the pot
- 2 Tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
- a pinch of sea salt

This recipe has given me multiple jars of syrup, which I am holding in the fridge to slow down spoilage. We replaced the 1 Litre jar this afternoon, which indicates the bees will go through about a jar each 2-3 days while they build their comb. We'll try to disturb the colony as little as possible while replacing the syrup in their internal feeder (a small chicken waterer with sponge to slow the flow and prevent drowning). There's a hole in the follower board so the bees can access the feeder from the main body of the hive, and so that we don't need to open everything up to replace the food supply. Hopefully when we peek in again in a few days, we'll see the beginning of some comb along the top bars.