Today the odds were in my favor as our bee supplier in Stillwater just got a shipment of mated queens in, right at the moment I needed to go get one in order to still get her installed and make it home by the time the school bus arrived! I drove out to Stillwater (a little over an hour), purchased a queen and some more smoker fuel & pellets, and then turned around and drove back!
I then got my stuff together and headed over to the hive to put her in. It was recommended to put tape over the candy plug for the first couple days, and then go back to remove it. This will give the bees more time to adjust and get used to her, and increase the likelihood of them accepting her. Since pulling a piece of tape off a roll with sticky, bulky gloves doesn't work well I pre-tore some duct tape in half and folded over the ends, so they'd be super easy to grab and tear off when I got there.
Jim (our bee supplier) said to just put her wherever most of the bees are, and not to make things harder for us by putting her in the bottom box where we have to take everything apart. So, I put her right in the center box.
I will go back in a couple days to remove the tape. Then it should take them a couple more days to free her by eating the candy plug! We'll then go back at some point and..fingers crossed...will hope to see some eggs!
Here's a quick video of me installing the queen!
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