Adventures in Beekeeping: Nuc Installation

It’s been a busy day and it looks like I won’t be posting my book giveaway until tomorrow.

Here’s what’s been keeping me busy today, no time for too many words. That will come later, but here are several photos of the latest honeybees that our on our property.

This nuc rode in my vehicle for about 30 minutes. If I were to guess, I’d say in the back seat of my car was between 15,000 – 20,000 honeybees. Only thing separating me from them was a cardboard nuc box. 😉 No, I wasn’t nervous!

Lots of honeybees!

This is a five frame nuc and each frame was literally covered with honeybees (both sides).

Love seeing honeybees in action.

And these honeybees were extremely active, but even so I didn’t use the smoker and just sprayed them once. I’m wearing lots of layers under the bee suit. Although I wear a size small, I chose an extra large bee suit. Why? I wear bulky clothing underneath the bee suit. That way if the honeybees sting my bee suit, since I’m wearing additional clothing underneath I most likely won’t get stung.

I will say these Frame grips are awesome! I purchased them today from a local beekeeper and it made transferring loaded honeybee frames to their new home a breeze!

During the transfer from the nuc to their new home, the honeybees did swarm around me in a cloud and that was fine. I’d be annoyed too, being cooped up in a tiny home for so long. No worries…I’m guessing that cloud contained several hundred honeybees. Who knows, it might have been in the low thousands? I didn’t have time to count you know! But even with all that activity, I didn’t panic. Why would I do something silly like that? Your brain can’t go on meltdown just because a situation might be challenging! I apply that same concept to other aspects of my life also; think rationally. I continued to make slow careful movements. I wanted them to know I wasn’t trying to rob or hurt them. I was there to make their home a bit bigger. My daughter, having seen all the activity, had already put further distance between herself and the hive. I make her stand a ways back until I can read their temperament. She’s expressed an interest in beekeeping so I’ll be purchasing a suit for her also. Then, she can be right there with me when things are a bit crazy. 🙂

The above photo is their new beehive. It’s a Langstroth. I prefer Warre beehives and I’m leaning towards Tanzanian Top Bars also. I haven’t had a chance to try out a Tanzanian. I’m willing to check out the Langstroth before forming an opinion.

The second box is purely for show (for now.) This box is where I’m keeping their food. I’m feeding them for a bit since I’m still not seeing a lot of pollen sources. I don’t want them to starve. What’s their food? Organic sugar and water. The ration is 1:1. Keeping their food housed inside the top box will discourage potential robbers from trying to get a free meal.  After all, there are lots of other critters that would love to gorge on sugar water too. Why make it easy for them? There’s only one way inside. A small entrance at the bottom of the hive and the guard bees won’t be letting other insects up in there; at least not without a nasty fight!

Their home is much larger now, here’s hoping they stay!