I got my bees last Wednesday and Sunday Caleb, Elodie and I checked them and the queen was released from her box (or as Elodie says-cage-which is more correct). The queen has a yellow dot on her to spot her easily. This will not harm her but helps you see her better. I gave them some more sugar water solution (until they get established) and they have already built about 1.5 combs of wax! Amazing. Busy as bees…
giantveggiegardener 
Good news! Now don’t let the winds blow them away! Hah!
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Right! hahaha!
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Can you get me in touch with other bee keepers in Santa FE so I can learn more-there’s a guy who raises them for their stinging immunity for chronic diseases. I can’t wait to put in a garden that could incorporate them too!!!! Thank you -you’re the greatest site
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Sangre de Cristo Beekeepers have monthly meetings where you could go, meet other interested people and learn about them. Bees do die when they sting so I’m not sure how they get the venom out of the bees without killing them. 😦
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Here’s the email to the lady who runs Sangre de Cristo Beekeepers Association. katewhealen@earthlink.net
Monthly meetings are on Thurs. evenings and the club has a site on Yahoo Groups, with info, links, messages, discussions. I think you have to SDCBA to access it. Good luck!
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Thanks Fran! How are your new bees doing?
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So far so good! They are going through sugar-water like crazy! I have seen the Italian queen, but not the Russian, yet. Everything looks good. They’re storing an amazing RED pollen! I have a chart of pollen colors and the plants they come from. I’ll try to find it for you and post it here.
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Great! Look forward to it!
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Here’s the link to the pollen chart : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_source
It’s easy to use – sorted by season and color of the pollen.
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Thanks Fran!
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