A Nuc Addition!

The nuc hives at Highland Honey Company awaiting their new charmers! There are five wooden frames full of comb, brood, honey, and of course bees. About 15, 000 bees on average!

We got word that our nuc hives were ready yesterday!  We had ordered two to bring our hive total up to three, with the hopes of splitting one or two of them this summer to total them up to five. (But time and health of the hives will tell if we will be able to)

We got them around seven thirty last night to be able to install them at dusk. Some bee keepers would say that this is a terrible thing to do and it is only nice to install hives in the morning or late afternoon, but NEVER at dusk. Working with bees at dusk is a great time especially in the heat of the summer when bees are just in a bad mood due to boredom and the heat. Opening them up when the evening is cooler, is in my opinion, more polite. The bees are quiet. They have filled their bellies. And its not hot. Most beekeepers who are in disagreeance with this don't really have a good reason to say why one shouldn't work with bees at dusk. I've said it before and I'll say it again- bee keepers are weird people. And typically the most opinionated. Any beekeeper not willing to admit this is an even weirder one.

One hive was not "chock full," of bees but it was full of brood and honey. I saw the queen roaming around, with her pretty little yellow dot marking her for easy site. The bees were completely calm, and very much sedated. I was able to take their five frames and put it into their hive box within ten minutes. No need to shake out any excess bees because they had all camped out on the frames.

The second nuc WAS chock full of bees. The box was heavy and buzzing. The bees, having been screened in to prevent them from leaving, were now anxious to get out.  It took a bit more work and David was there to help. The frames were just heavy with bees, brood and honey. The smell was heavenly.  (I have mentioned before that bees smell like shortbread cookies and cinnamon) I was downwind of them so when the wind blew you could smell the honey, and sweet bee scent.  Good smelling bees is a sign of good health.   After getting the five frames into their new hive box, David scraped the rest of the bees still in the nuc into the hive.  It was awesome to see clumps of bees just falling into the hive and then quickly dissipating into the frames. Their buzz getting louder and louder as the other bees stuck their beehinds in the air and fanned their wings to give off the "this is home scent."

This morning, all three hives were very busy. Its a site I have to get used to again when I look out our kitchen window- three hives full of busy bees. But a site that will never get old.