Added another hive.

Added another hive to the yard.  Drove to the bee supplier Friday after work to pick up the new girls.  Bees are sold and shipped (or in my case, picked up) in what's called a Package.  A wooden box with about 4,000 bees. 

The queen is in a separate and very small cage inside the package.  She has to be released by the colony over the course of a few days so that they'll accept her as their queen.  If I were to just put her in directly, they would kill her. Anyway, here are a few pictures from Friday afternoon. I had my hive built a few days in advance.

Package.  Bees, a can of heavy syrup (food), and the queen cage inside at the end of the orange strip.

Spraying them with sugar water to distract them and make them easier to get into the hive.  Bees in a package state are very docile. I'm only wearing a suit because my other hive is about 10 feet away.  I want the new bees distracted (licking sugar water off) so that they don't fill the air panicking.

I drove home with the package in the front seat of my car.  When I picked up the package, there was a bee on the outside.  In this case a drone (male) from some other colony.  He rode all the way home with me, calmly walking around on the package. 

He took a few flights around the inside of the car, but always went back to the bees. Stayed with them during the transfer to the new home, which he adopted. He's visible in the first pic, just below the strap, walking around on the outside.

Queen cage removed and installed between two frames.  It has a marshmallow plug that the workers will eat away and release her. Takes a few days.

Shaking the bees into the hive.  They eventually disperse and crawl in between the frames. Takes them about 20 minutes or so to get their bearings.

All in.  I'll feed them for about a month until they get comb drawn out and honey made.

I'll add a second deep (hive body and ten frames) late summer.  Won't take any honey until next year.