I picked up 2 nucs at Dave's Apiaries. For those of you who don't know what a nuc is, it's a nucleus colony (a small colony consisting of a queen, workers and drones) in a cardboard box with a top and little entrance hole on the front. The box has four frames in it and is surprisingly heavy. I placed the two nucs in the place where the hives will be, facing in exactly the same direction as the hives will face. I left them there for a couple of hours before opening the entrance holes. As soon as I took the tape off the hole, the bees starting coming out and exploring their new digs.
I have named the two hives after famous queens...Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons...will shorten this to Queen E and Queen H over time I imagine. Queen Hippolyta is already far more active than her neighbour, go figure...but Queen E brought home the first pollen...within the first 2 hours.
Here's a picture of the nucs in place.
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| Nucs in new home |
I will leave them there to their own devices until the following morning. They are fascinating! I could not keep away from them. Finally I gave up trying to do anything and my husband, Bill and I got ourselves a couple of chairs and cups of coffee and sat and whiled away the afternoon watching the bees come and go. They have no interest in us...at least not yet. There is a slight buzz coming from the boxes.
So goodnight bees.
The bee uniform is quite becoming.
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