This week I picked up 2 new colonies of bees! I haven’t had great success getting a honeybee colony over winter (alive) when running only one colony. I don’t love buying bees every spring. Since I’ve lost my bees over a few winters now, I’ve decided to try two, hoping at least one will make it over winter and I can split in spring and grow my apiary a bit. We’ll see how this goes.
I was very excited to get these girls home and out to their new spot. I asked Dad if he and his pick up truck could help me pick up my bees. He’s always happy to help, but he’d “better not get stung!” 😊 In the past, I have bought a “Nuc” which is basically a 4 frame package of bees that includes a queen. Nucs typically come in a ventilated cardboard box that’s well taped up so no bees can escape. I stick it in the backseat of my car and bring it home, transfer the 4 frames into a brood box, with an additional 4 frames and then add a bucket of spring syrup (1:1 water to sugar, by weight), and close it up. The procedure for bringing them home is a fair bit different this time.
This time, I bought 2 full colonies, or 20 frames of bees which includes 2 queens. My price included the frames, but not the brood boxes, so I took some brood boxes to transfer my frames into. The process of transferring the frames to my brood boxes took about an hour as we inspected as we went, to make sure I got the 2 queens. Because hive boxes don’t have a top or bottom, we put the box on a plywood base, stapled screens to the top of the boxes to keep them in, yet still give them air, then held them together with a ratchet strap and loaded them into the back of Dad’s pick up truck and took them home, out to their corner of the hay field. Then I released the straps, removed the screens, put the boxes of bees on their bottom boards and stacked the inner and outer cover on top.
The standard Langstroth hive holds 10 frames of bees, but I run 8 frame Langstroth hives because they’re easier for me to manage. Because I have 20 frames of bees and 2 of my 8 frame boxes only hold 16 (#math), I’ve had to figure out what to do with the “leftover” 4 frames. My options are: 1. Make sure there’s brand new eggs that the colony could make into their own queen, or 2. Add a 2nd brood box to one of the other hives. I haven’t decided yet. Option 1 means I need to buy a couple things. Option 2 is easier. If the Nuc doesn’t take off, I’ll have to combine them with another colony for winter anyway. Still debating… I’ll keep you posted.
We had a nice uneventful trip and it’s good to have the girls home safe and sound.
Next, unlike with a Nuc installation, and per my bee guy’s recommendation, I didn’t feed them, but instead put my flow frames on (aka my honey supers) to let them start bringing in the nectar to make honey!
Are you a beekeeper? Wanna be? Have questions? As they say, ask 5 beekeepers, get 10 answers… I’m always happy to share my thoughts and experiences – let me know what you’re wondering about!
– Beck
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