Well. What a wonderful forum! So happy to be here.
As a new beekeeper (around 12 hours officially) i had a question.
I recieved a colony of bees in a nuc, and have been reading/watching all i can about installing them…
Which leads me to feel slightly perplexed, and i have a question, or two…
I have placed the nuc in the final place and orientation where my hive will be located, opened it, and allowed the bees to fly and get orientated.
how long do I wait before i can move the frames (and hopefully therefore the bees) to thier new hive? There are many conflicting reports ranging from"Within a couple of hours" to “leave them for days”?
practically every post/video i have seen suggests putting the nuc next to the hive one intends to transfer the bees to. As i understand it, bees orientate to a given ‘spot’, not ‘a box’… while i placed the nuc where the bees will permanently live, their actual permanent hive is still up in the garage where it was being constructed…
Does the actual hive need to be next to the nuc whilst the bees orientate, or can i bring it down to the exact place the nuc located is just prior to the transfer. Not sure if it makes a difference?
I hope the above questions arent too stupid, and make sense.
None of your questions are at all stupid - asking all the questions is what it takes to learn something as challenging as beekeeping! So please stick with us here and fire away
Yes you can! This will be fine, as long as your new gear is dry and not still off-gassing from sealant or paint. If it still smells that would be a good reason to give it another day to air out in the sun, somewhere away from where it’s supposed to sit when bees are in it.
A reason you wouldn’t want to wait for days and days is that a nuc is already pretty well-populated and built out with brood and food. The bees know this and if they don’t get more room soon enough they’ll start swarm preparations. Another one to consider is the current weather and what your nuc box is made of - the coreflute ones won’t protect well against high wind, a downpour, or baking sun.
Nucleus Colonies by nature are ready to be inserted into a new hive upon arrival to thier new apiary. Given the fact Beekeepers typically weigh frame composition in the favor of capped Brood, its a high likelyhood you will see explosive growth within the first week or so after installation. With this in mind, its recomended that you substitute your nucleus out for the actual hive sooner rather than later.
The reasons behind this is “Space” in a hive is a commodity in of itself. Without this the Queens pheromones have a lessend capacity to reach all the colonies occupants, creating higher chances of the workers triggering a swarm. So this is why managing space is an important aspect in keeping Bees.
Is your hive ready for its new colony? If you can get them installed sooner then that is for the best in my opinion.
Theres no such thing as a stupid question. Knowledge is the key to developing your own style, without this mistakes naturally take place. So turning yourself into a literal knowledge sponge is highly recomended. If you dont have a mentor then I highly recommend seeking a beekeeper to fill this capacity for you, maybe the individual that provided your nucleus is a good consideration?
We all are looking forward to hearing your progress so please provide updates when you can
