I received some good advice from Uncle Larry earlier today when he told me that when transporting bees in my car to be sure that none were loose as they would be a "distraction" during the journey. Good advice because when I was handed my package of bees there were about 30 bees on the outside of the box. I brushed them away before putting the whole thing into the car (the bees on the outside of the package were pretty sure they wanted to come too and were most upset about being left behind). Thankfully none escaped during the ride and we made it home in one piece.
The bees upon arriving home. Bzzzzzzzz.............
Three pounds of bees- a standard box (about 10,000). 
Here's the location on our property where the bees are going to live. They'll get early sun, afternoon shade, and are a good distance from both the neighbor's house and any fields. Here I am getting final things ready before starting the process. 
The first thing I did after arriving home was to give the bees a good drink of sugar water. Once I was ready to put them into the hive I gave them another coating so they would have something to eat and would fly around less once they were out of their box. 
Ready! It was really windy outside, which made the veil difficult to use. I wore it most of the time, but took it off towards the end of the process. Won't do that again (thanks for the advice, Uncle Larry), but I'll probably not attend to my bees on a windy day either. Unfortunately we have more windy days than calm days around here. Good lesson learned. 
Getting the feeding container off and the queen bee into the hive. 
After shaking the bees into the bottom super. 
Ta-da! And no stings! 
Welcome home bees! 
Everything went really smoothly, although I did have a major concern about my queen. After a frantic email to Uncle Larry (and a quick call back from him!), I think everything will be okay. I'll check back in a week and see how the hive is doing. I'll be sure to update our blog and let you all know how things are going.
We got in pretty late at night (driving up after getting off of work), so we slept in the next morning then went out for a tasty breakfast. Brian's breakfast the morning after we arrived- cheese french toast.
We had hors' devours and drinks (I had cape cods) one afternoon after spending some quality time in a downtown bookstore. 
The tomato and mozzarella salad was delicious! 
Downtown Minneapolis is cool because all the downtown buildings are connected by skyways. So, you don't actually have to walk outside. We did just to get the fresh air, but it was fun seeing all the people inside. There was hardly anyone on the streets. 
On the way back Brian and I did a little bit of genealogy work for Grandpa Platt and Aunt Judy. We stopped in a small town south of Minneapolis and found the Groveland cemetery to look for Platt stones. There was a lot of snow, but Brian actually found one! The large monument in the right of this photo is for Henry Platt and his family. Brian's digging out one of the smaller stones. 
I've gotten lots of messages and cards- thanks! The parents sent some great gifts. Don and Patsy sent me a rooster wall hanging (beautiful!). 
My Mom and Dad sent me flowers and chocolate at work.
Thank you! We have a busy weekend ahead, so this is a really, really quick post. I'll write more next week, but wanted to get some photos up. :)