The weather was pretty bee-neutral that day, so I put the package in my trunk and drove them to my apiary. I brought with me a wealth of supplies, including jacket with veil, gloves, sugar syrup, spray bottle, hammer, nails, smoker, cotton smoker fuel, hive tool, and matches. The gloves I'm using are handy in that they're cheap, disposable, and puncture resistant: nitrile gloves.
At the apiary, I filled the spray bottle, and sprayed the bees while they were still in the package. I've read that you really can't spray them too much. I've also seen videos where the keepers spray their bees incessantly. The sugar syrup weighs the bees down and clumps them together, but it also keeps them occupied while I'm pouring them into the hive. I didn't end up using the smoker. There's really no need with package bees. They're so docile.
My queen came in a standard cage, but with a plastic strap attached. Luckily, I prepared... I brought a hammer and some very small nails. I was able to put a nail into the top of one of my frames, put a slit into the plastic strap attached to the queen cage, and then hang the queen cage between two frames from the nail. Remember, though, to angle your queen cage so the mesh does not face the frame foundation. You want your workers to have access to the queen.
Finally, I added a top feeder to the hive and filled it with a bunch of 1:1 sugar syrup. The bees love it, but I'm told that looters will sometimes go into underneath the cover and into the top of the feeder to drown. Also, if any gaps form in mesh cove that keeps the hive bees from drowning, they will venture out into the ocean of syrup and drown. More discussion on feeders here: Burgh Bees: Which Feeder Do You Use?
Next time I check in will be in about a week when I ensure that the queen has left her cage and has started to lay eggs.
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