New bees

We picked up two nucs early this morning, from a bee farm half an hour away.  Nucs are nucleus hives; a box with fully established frames, including a queen, workers, some honey stores, and brood growing.

In this case, the nucs were in cardboard boxes, each with five frames.

Here’s Jenn transferring the frames from the first nuc box to their new home, the orange hive (named for the base color). The hive box has three extra frames for them to expand into, for a total of eight:

Bee nuc

The bees were not in a good mood, probably due to being shaken around on the journey, and the liquid smoke wasn’t working. One stung Jenn on the side of her hand through the thin gloves she was wearing.

Here’s the new hive installed, with a sugar syrup feeder, and a pollen patty inside. The nuc box was left in front, so the bees remaining in there can find the hive:

Bees installed

Jenn put on thicker gloves and fired up the smoker for the second nuc. Here she’s looking at a frame while transferring it into the hive:

Bee frame

Another frame, in a cloud of smoke:

Bee frame

The second hive was easier; the smoke really helps. Here Jenn tipped out most of the remaining bees from the box:

Tipping out bees

Both hives (all four, actually) have a pollen patty to help feed the bees:

Pollen patty

The new orange and purple hives:

New hives

All four hives:

Four hives

Four hives