Time for another phase of our homestead: we are now beeks — beekeepers.

This morning we picked up two nucs (nucleus hives) at the “local” bee supply store in Wilsonville (about an hour away, but pretty much everything is from our place):

The nucs are four-frame ones, half the size of our hive boxes, giving them each four empty frames to expand into before we need to add another box:

Here’s Jenn examining one of the frames. One or two bees there, all happily doing their thing:

After removing the four frames, there were a bunch of bees left in the bottom of the box:

So they got dumped in too:

Jenn in her bee suit (and you can see the new chicken coop in the background, which will give you an idea of where the hives are located):

Bunches of bees:

A frame from the second nuc:

Both hives populated, with sugar water feeders (plus pollen patties inside):

Settle in, girls! I hope you like your new homes.