Hello from Valley View Texas

New beekeeper. Just installed 2 nucs and am excited to help the hives thrive. Hopefully, with the classes I’ve taken , and with resources like YouTube and this forum I won’t kill them.
Thanks,
Gary

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Welcome! Ask any questions we can help with, and please consider joining a local bee club (if you haven’t) for specific climate and nectar flow information. Good luck and I hope you enjoy your bees!

:blush:

Gary,

Welcome aboard the Bee :honeybee: Forum here … As Dawn said, you need some info, advice, encouragement … pop right back in here. If we don’t have an answer I’m sure we can point you in the right directions.

Cheer n happy beekeeping,
Gerald

Welcome to the forum Gary, you will find a helpful crowd here and as you are heading towards Summer you should have hives ready to transfer from the nuc’s as they will quickly looking for more room. Decide on 8 or 10 frame boxes and stick to the one size, it will stop a lot of frustration later on.
I have 8 frame full depth boxes and that works for me, I was a few weeks ago offered 3 10 frame boxes with comb, base boards and tops ready for bees but declined the offer.
Regards

Thanks Peter. I’ve set myself up with 10 frame deep brood boxes. I have medium honey supers (would be great if I could at least get comb pulled on these this year). I am checking my nuc install today for the first time. Hopefully, I will see that they are pulling comb on the 3 frames I added with the 5 nuc frames (I have a 2 frame feeder in the box). My nucs had mostly capped brood and some nectar. I’ve seen the bees bringing in pollen the past few days so they should bee storing that. I don’t think I’ll break into the frames much today. My goal is to determine whether they need more syrup and monitor how they are filling out the first brood box. Hopefully I will be able to add another brood box before long. Thanks Again.

Thanks Gerald. Appreciate the reply.

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I would not disturb the hive for 48 hours after installing them to give them time to settle into their new home and location. At that time you should see them pulling the new frames starting at the closest to the brood. They will work on the super when they need to and making new comb as it is needed by the bees, and you will see them doing that fairly quickly. Look for bees flying in with pollen and assume those not returning with pollen are bringing in nectar at which stage I would stop feeding them and sit back, relax and let the bees do their thing, I time to look, listen and learn.
Regards

Thanks Peter. I let them sit for almost 5 days before I checked this evening. They had drained the syrup pretty much. It looked like they were starting to pull a couple of the new frames. It looks like about one out of 5 is bringing in pollen. I saw that they were building up pollen in at least one side of a frame. I found both my queens. I saw a little uncapped larvae, but I couldn’t see any eggs. It was a little dusky. Next time I open them I’ll do it so I can get some sun on my back. Thanks Again.

Might be a good idea to give them some more feed, at least until they slow down in taking it. Drawing comb takes a lot of sugar (syrup or honey), so it won’t be wasted at this point. :wink:

Never feed with a harvesting super on, but meanwhile, when you are building the brood box, go for it! :blush:

Thanks Dawn. I did refill my feeders yesterday. I thought I’d make another batch on Saturday and just crack the lid to refill again on Saturday if they need it.

Using a torch to do that job is worth trying, sometimes natural light is just not enough.
Regards

You know I had a head lamp on, but it wasn’t showing through my suit veil. I was doing a quick check so I didn’t sweat it. I found the queen and some larvae. The next time I open the box I’ll take a powerful torch so I can look really good. Hopefully, next time I’ll be looking to add a second brood box. Thanks Peter.