How do I make sure the queen is in the hive when I install the bees?

Q. My bee source (a removal person) is going to give me a swarm she removes -
so she said she doesn't separate the queen from the others - so, when I
install the bees, do you just shake the bees into the hive like your dvd
shows and just make sure the queen clump is in the hive before putting down
the box - or is there anything else I should know?

A: This is great that you have a swarm contact. Installing a happy swarm is a real experience. I have never been stung when installing a swarm in a hive.

Here are a few things you want to check with your bee remover:

1) Is the bee removal inside a house or rafters and have the bees been sucked out with a bee vacuum?

There is a chance that the queen might not get in the box or that she was killed in the process.

The best swarms to get are the ones that are in a tree or a bush. The big question for the bee remover is: How certain are they that they got the queen?

2) Also try to find out how many swarms the bee remover captures a week. This will give you the confidence to wait for a big swarm. Early in the season the swarms are typically small. Small swarms are great, but a big one really gets things going fast in the new hive. Remember that the bees have to start from scratch. They have to use all their nectar collections to make combs, feed brood, feed themselves and get their new home up and running. The more bees doing all this the faster the hive will get established.

When installing the bees you are not really going to see the queen. You can observe the behavior of the bees and get a good idea if the queen came out of the box into your hive. If the queen is in the hive you will see the bees starting to fan. Fanning is when the bees stick their butts up in the air and flap their wings, sending off a pheromone to all the bees saying” the queen is here, come to our new home”. For the most part the queen will be in the center of the bee ball and will easily fall into the hive. Make sure that you have the box of bees over the hive when you begin to turn it over. The bees appear to be in a solid ball in the box but often times drop from the box suddenly.

When you first put the bees in the hive they will spread out and begin moving up the inside of the hive pretty rapidly. You want to replace most of the top bars before they cover the rim of the hive. I leave one or two bars out until they are all settled down.

Most likely there will be some bees that are on rim of the hive where you want to put the top bar.

To avoid smashing bees you can use a scissor motion with the bar, sliding it along the adjacent bar to scoot off the bees. You can also brush the bees back into the hive with a handful of grass. the grass brush seems to not disturb the bees as much as a man made brush. Remember slow movements. If a bee gets in your bonnet don't wave you hands in the air. Walk away "slowly" and pinch the bee, you can say you’re sorry later.