Saturday May 14, 2016: Meet the Bee Teacher to pick up the nucs we ordered. My daughter declined to come with me. The thought of being strapped into her carseat in a car full of bees was just too much for her. I arrive and the Bee Teacher has one deep and one medium nuc for me. A medium? Did I order a medium? No, I don't think so? Oh damn, it was for someone else in the class. Thankfully the Bee Teacher has another deep nuc at home and we can schedule a pickup the next day.
Our Co-op has elected to install on Sunday, May 15, 2016. "I hope they don't swarm, that nuc if full" says the Bee teacher. Then she laughs, "I'm joking, you should be fine"
I set the nuc next to the hive box into which we will install on the morrow. Then I don what we refer to as my "Bee Costume" and remove the screen from the entrance, letting the bees fly out and get acquainted with their new digs.
Our Co-op has elected to install on Sunday, May 15, 2016. "I hope they don't swarm, that nuc if full" says the Bee teacher. Then she laughs, "I'm joking, you should be fine"
I set the nuc next to the hive box into which we will install on the morrow. Then I don what we refer to as my "Bee Costume" and remove the screen from the entrance, letting the bees fly out and get acquainted with their new digs.
Sunday, May 15, 2016: 8am I pick up the second nuc from the Bee Teacher. I bring it home and set it next to the other hive box and release the bees.
4pm: the co-op arrives for the installation. We all don our bee costumes, fire up the smoker (that's a whole separate saga), and start cracking open boxes. The first install is without incident. We easily find the queen (conveniently marked by the Bee Teacher) and all the frames go in smoothly. We put a feeder on top and close it up. This will now be known as Pomegranate Hive as it is near the Pom bush.
We begin to install the second nuc. Where's the queen? Did you see her? We remove and check each frame again. Are you guys seeing all these queen cells? Um, are they going to swarm? Where the heck is the queen? We put on the feeder, close it up, and go call the Bee Teacher. She says she wants to come see what's going on.
4pm: the co-op arrives for the installation. We all don our bee costumes, fire up the smoker (that's a whole separate saga), and start cracking open boxes. The first install is without incident. We easily find the queen (conveniently marked by the Bee Teacher) and all the frames go in smoothly. We put a feeder on top and close it up. This will now be known as Pomegranate Hive as it is near the Pom bush.
We begin to install the second nuc. Where's the queen? Did you see her? We remove and check each frame again. Are you guys seeing all these queen cells? Um, are they going to swarm? Where the heck is the queen? We put on the feeder, close it up, and go call the Bee Teacher. She says she wants to come see what's going on.