Yesterday we drove two hours to Eugene, Oregon (and two hours back) to pick up two nucs — nucleus bee hives, i.e. small starter hives.

The bee pickup was quite a streamlined production, with a line of cars, and people loading the nucs into vehicles:

Interesting plastic nuc boxes:

A sign of the times on the way home:

We stopped by the feed store on the way home to get some chicken and duck supplies, which resulted in some escaping bees (here our truck is parked on the grass near the hives):

The straw and other supplies squeezed the left nuc box enough to let some bees escape. The lids weren’t as secure as they could be. It looks like a lot of bees, but isn’t all that many really:

We’ve ordered components for a sixth hive, but they haven’t arrived yet, so we used a temporary base and a bit of plywood for a lid:

Opened nuc:

Frame with queen. Can you see her? We didn’t spot her at the time, but noticed her in this photo, at the bottom just right of center (the long dark bee):

A brood frame:

The new hive with the five nucs frames added, and a pollen patty for extra food to get them started:

Nuc for the “hot pink” hive:

Some nice brood frames:

We spotted this queen; the long dark bee on the left of the picture:

A closeup of some bees:

The empty nuc box; we shook most of these bees onto the top of the hive, so they’d find their way inside:

We took a look in the older hives. In the cedar hive, we saw their queen (near the top):

Nice new comb in the yellow hive:

We didn’t see a queen (or sign of one) in the yellow hive, but saw many queen cups, so they’re working on making one. Remember, we recently split the yellow hive to the cedar hive, so now we know which one got their queen, and which one is making a replacement. We’ll check again later to make sure they’re successful:

A nice honey frame:

We now have six hives:

A closer look at the purple, temporary new one, and yellow hives:

A closer look at the cedar, hot pink, and orange hives:

All six from the other side: