The Nucs Are Here!

After several delays in the delivery of the bees, my nucs are here for pickup. I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of these bees so I can re-establish my two hives that are at the Marion house, and establish the new hive that I have placed in the Norwood Community Garden.

How does one go about getting bees for a hive, and just what is a "nuc"?

You can get bees in a number of ways:

1) If you are lucky, or smart, or particularly crafty, you can catch a swarm, or track feral bees to  their hive location and catch them in the wild. You capture the queen and thousands of workers. Not something that most newbies will do.

2) You can buy a "package". Typically this is a 3 pound package of bees along with (usually) a virgin queen in a separate cage. You install the bees by literally pouring them into the open hive. You suspend  the queen in her cage between some frames and allow the bees to get used to her pheromones (she is new to them, they are not her offsprings). There is a candy plug in the end of the cage, and over the course of manys days, the candy is eaten away, freeing the queen. By then, the bees are used to her pheromones and (most usually) accepts her into the hive. About 3 weeks from that point you should start to see new baby bees.

3) You buy a nuc ... or nucleus. This is in essence a mini somewhat established working hive. It has 5 frames, usually with mostly fully drawn out comb. There is a mated queen, laying eggs. There is packed pollen, larvae, and perhaps some honey. You put the 5 frames into your 10 frame hive in exactly the same order as they were in the nuc.  There are several thousand (10?) worker bees. The hive is immediately off and working. No delays.


So I bought 3 nucs at $110 each, and put one in the Norwood Community Garden bee hive, and two down at the Marion hives.

The nucs don't take long to install. More time is usually spent getting the suit on, smoker lit, and pieces all together.

At the NCG hive, I had several spectators watching and taking pictures. I handed Vic Babel a hat and veil to put on. He had a long sleeve sweatshirt on already. I told him that he could get quite close as I installed the frames from the nuc, and as long as he didn't wave his hands about in panic, the bees should not bother him. I think he was a bit to a lot nervous at first, particularly when several hundred bees came out at once and began flying about - mostly at me. Vic did great. Several landed on him, many were buzzing about the veil, and he stood calmly in one spot watching. He had a great introduction to the bees. That install went well, as did the two down in Marion that I did by myself.