New bee arrival date; hives ready.

The bees now arrive on April 18, 2015.  The distribution center is Nature's Nectar in Stillwater.  Pick-up day is very busy, and Nature's Nectar used to have certain times that you could arrive--depending on your last name.  If you are far enough away (as I am), I think you can show up whenever you are able.

The hives for spring 2015:  Langstroth (Hive A), a Kenyan top-bar hive (Beta), and another Langstroth (Hive B)

The hives are ready to go.  I had to (or decided to) throw away many frames after my bees died during the winter of '13 - '14.  I believe that they just died from a cold snap and not from any diseases.  There was some rotting of the bees and many of the frames were, I though, no longer useful.

So, I'll need to order about 100+ frames, I think.  Both A1 and B1 need new frames.  Also, as I might show you in an upcoming post, I think that Beta is going to also use those frames.

I have some pollen patties from the first season that I had the bees, 2013.  They've been in the refrigerator since then.  They may still be good, but I don't know how to determine that, frankly...

I'm also struggling with how I'll feed syrup to the bees in Beta.  I may have to use an external feeder and just hope that A1 and B1 leave that syrup alone once they find their own syrup in their hives.