April 2019


 

Setting up two brand new hives to receive nucleus colonies.

Setting up two brand new hives to receive nucleus colonies.  These first steps (before the bees arrive) are often overlooked by new beekeepers.  It takes time to purchase, sand and paint the woodenware.  What kind of hive do you want?  What kind of foundation will you use?  How many frames, 8-frame or 10-frame?  Will you build or purchase your hive stands?  Where will you place your bees?  Does your locale require that your hives be registered?

This is Zeesa (we call her Zee), she's a redbone coonhound.

 

Installation of a nuc: I drove two hours to northern Maryland to purchase 2 nucleus colonies from a reputable apiary (picking up the colonies after sundown so that most of the bees would have returned from daily foraging).  Driving back with thousands of buzzing bees in cardboard boxes in the back of my car was a unique experience. I arrived at the house late at night and placed each nuc on top of the hive where it would be installed.  I waited until early the next morning to install each colony.  Notice that the frames that came with the nuc are black and yellow plastic frames (as compared to my wooden frames).  These plastic frames will be rotated out of the hive in time.  I started internal feeding in a top box immediately with 1:1 sugar water.

 

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