Bee Day At Last!!!

As mentioned in yesterday's blog, we didn't open the nucs when we brought the bees home yesterday.

Instead we planted the nucs where the hives would rest and waited until dusk to open the bottom entrance.

The advice was that if the bees were introduced slowly they'd have more time to orient themselves to the location.

By being oriented a little more slowly they wouldn't fly off and be lost.

When we arrived the next morning the bees were flying happily in and out of the nuc box, even bringing back pollen they'd found.

We planned to arrive around 11:00 (mid morning) to hive the nuc frames of bees into the hives.

Codie even got the day off school so he could come and help. (Codie, you owe your Auntie for getting you out of school for a day).

During the night I woke up a couple times, worried that raccoons might tip over the nuc boxes. I was very relieved to arrive and find everything just as we left it. Whew!

Codie got the smoker going and then watched from a safe distance. Dad and I wore bee veils and Dad handled to smoker while I focused on opening up the nuc boxes and pulling out the frames.

My plan was to be organized and calm so we talked about what would be done each step of the way before we started.

We gave them a little bit of smoke in the front entrance and through the screening on top.

The nuc box comes with little cardboard divisions that hold the frames in place and the lid was taped on. All I had to do was cut the tape and take the lid off, and viola... Bees!

Even though the bees hadn't been in there that long, the frames were stuck down. I was able to pull them out by hand with a little wiggling. The bees were very calm and clung to the frame. Not once in the whole procedure did bees fly up or land on us.

The frames should be placed into the hive in the same order that they're in the nuc. Also, the frames should face the opening in the same position as the nuc. This keeps everything as familiar as possible for the bees.

I took out the first frame, lifting slowly straight up. I was not going to spend time looking for the queen.

I figured that would be resolved when I do my inspection a week from now. And I didn't want to stress the bees any more than necessary.

I did not put the empty frames with foundation in first so as to leave more room for the nuc frames.

As I picked up each frame, the bees were very calm and clung to their frame. None of my helpers ran off in fear. In fact, once they saw that the bees were gentle, they came in for a closer look.

I set the frames in one by one with lots of space between them. Then I carefully and slowly snugged them up to each other and the edge of the box.

After that I added in the 6 frames with permadent foundation. This permadent is black--all the better to spot the white eggs.

Then I slowly spaced all the 10 frames out so that they were mostly equally spaced.

It was all pretty easy and smooth.

Then we put the hive feeder on top.

My hive feeder is a wooden box with a metal bottom with holes drilled in a well area where the bees could climb up and over the edge of the well to drink without drowning. I used a water and sugar mixture of 2:1 (2 parts water to 1 part sugar).

I debated over using a rim spacer and a sandwich bag with sugar water but since I had the hive feeders I decided to use them.

Next I took the nuc box that still had a few bees in it and I shook it very strongly over the hive. Then I set the box in front of the hive so any stray bees would be able to pick up the smell of the hive and find their way.

After that we popped on the outer cover and set a couple bricks on top.

Then we watched and it was amazing to see that the bees were already bringing back pollen--huge clumps of white pollen on their back legs.

This was a relief to see them finding food because we are between major flower blooms at the moment--the whole broken arm thing delayed me setting up the hives in the middle of the best bloom time.

There's lots of water in the swamp too so I don't need to worry about them finding that. Hopefully the sugar syrup will tide them over for a couple weeks until they get some comb built and the next wave of blooms come in.

Then we repeated the same process on the second nuc.

I opted for a pink and green theme for the hives just to liven things up a bit.

The pink bar is the entrance reducer which will only need to be in place for a week or so.

The whole process of installing the nucs went very calmly and very smoothly and no one got stung.

After about 45 minutes the nuc box was empty of the leftover bees and I moved it away from the site.

We watched as the bees were a little confused for a bit over the new entrance (reduced) and they took some time to find where it was.

It wasn't long until bees stuck their rears up at the entrance and fanned furiously, sending out homing pheramones. You could actually see the incoming bees catch a whiff. As soon as the bee starting scenting the entrance the bees zeroed on it immediately.

The bees were very calm and placid and they made a very good impression on us first time beekeepers.The bees were very calm and placid and they made a very good impression on us first time beekeepers.

2 Bee or Not 2 Bee

Dad and I drove out to Guelph to pick up two nucs on Thursday, Bee Day.

The nucleus hives, termed "nucs" by beekeepers consist of a box, usually made of waxed cardboard or sometimes of wood. The small box is about half the size of a full hive and contains 4 frames of bees. The top part of the box will have small holes or screening for ventilation.

The nuc consists of: One frame of honey, food for the bees. Another will be capped brood just waiting to hatch. The third will be a mix of brood and food and the last frame is mostly empty, but already made into honeycomb by the bees and just waiting to be filled with food and babies. The last frame also gives a place for the bees to go since they're packed in pretty closely.

That's the make up of a nucleus colony. And of course it has a queen, usually already introduced so there's no need to deal with queen cages and queen acceptance.

Dad was surprised how heavy the boxes were. We were warned to be careful with pressing on the cardboard sides as it could crush the bees inside, but we also found they didn't like us carrying the box with our hands on the bottom. If we held onto the well-taped lid the bees were much quieter.

I took the good advice from the seller and instead of installing the two nucs into my hives as soon as we got home, what we did is place the nuc boxes where the hives would be located. Then we went home and had supper.

We came back at dusk and what we did then was slit the taped opening at the bottom of the box. This way the bees could leave the hive. By opening the box at dusk the bees would have some time to orient themselves gradually to the area first.

We were told that if you get home and just release the bees, they can storm out of the nuc box and fly off and get lost because they don't know where they are. So if you want to reduce the number of lost bees, wait until the next day to hive the nuc.

We smoked the bees a little first. When we we opened the exit at dusk just a few bees came out but most just explored the porch area and didn't stray too far. I taped the opening down with duct tape just to get us through until morning.

Codie, my nephew (who had previously declared himself afraid of bees) was an enthusiastic helper.

My sister was there too as well as my brother's son Ben, who had just arrived from Australia the day before.

So everyone got to see the bees. In fact, they got closer to thousands of bees than they ever thought they would in their whole life!

And the bees performed well. As soon as the door was open the caretaker bees got to work carrying out a few dead bodies and debris, dropping it outside the door.

Everyone was really impressed to see the bees in action doing their tasks. Then I overheard Codie instructing Ben on how the bees make a queen. I had just told Codie that info a few hours prior. Word travels fast among beekeepers!

I noticed one hive was more active than the other but both hives had a healthy hum and I could see living bees moving around when I looked through the screening.

So, I put the outer hive cover on top to cover the screening in case it rained and we bid the bees good night.

The next day at mid morning we'd be back and we would take the frames from the nuc boxes and install them in the hives.

It was a good day. A good day indeed :)