Day 1

Day1.

The Nucs are ready, at last!

A poor queen mating season has meant the nucs are a month later than anticipated. The clover is bursting everywhere and we have had no bees to work it, what a waste.

We took a scenic drive to pickup the nucs from Kereru, what a magnificent view.

Site chosen

 

 

 

 We left nucs on their new bases overnight to let the bees settle down. A cover was placed over them and the entrance unplugged.

Bursting to get out

 By morning the bees were obviously keen to explore their new home. One box appeared a lot more active than the other. I worried that the entrance was blocked as I could not see any bee exiting so lifted the roof a little to allow some air.

Unpacking

 

 

I needn't have worried, the box was full of happy bees.

 

 

 

Find the queen

 As we transferred the frames from the nuc box to the hive box we checked each frame for the queen. The queen is not marked but was not difficult to spot.

 

 

Second box

 The second box had more bees than the first. We carefully transferred these frames to the new hive having spotted the queen easily again.

We'll leave them be for a week before opening the hive again.

In the rush to get them settled I didn't really examine the frames as much as I would have liked to, maybe next week.

 

What size hive?

The next decision is what size hives to use. I have decided to use all ¾ quarter boxes, brood and honey. With such a small number of hives it makes sense to have all the same size boxes. Since Ana is no body builder, she might just be able to manage a ¾ quarter box full of honey but no way she could lift a full depth box of honey.

Since I didn't trust my building skills we bought two complete hives from Trevor Gillibanks, ready made with wooden frames, Hive Doctor bases and prewired with foundation.

These were beautifully made and well worth the cost.

In future I will buy kit set boxes and make them myself.

What bees to start with?

I soon decided the best way to start is to buy two bee nuclei. This is a small box with four or five frames containing bees, a laying queen and brood, honey and pollen.

Nuc Vs swarm

I helped a friend catch a swarm some weeks before my nuc was available and was tempted to also use a swarm as a start. A swarm costs nothing, except time and fuel to get it but it does have some drawbacks. It is hard to know the heritage of the swarm, are they quiet, gentle bees or bloody ratbags.

The queen is likely to be older and will need replacing in the autumn.

You do not know the history of varroa treatment.

Since the bees have swarmed once you increase the likelihood of swarming in the future.

Although a nuc can cost from $150-200, when bought from a reputable supplier, you get a known strain of bees with a new queen and recently treated for varroa.

We bought our nucs from Beeline Ltd

To begin at the beginning

I've had a long interest in bees but had not thought seriously about owning a hive until I noticed how few bees were around and how poor pollination was in our fruit trees.

I read a few books from the library and quickly realised some sort of beginners beekeeping course would be very useful.

Luckily, the local Hawke's Bay branch of the National Bee Keepers Association were about to run just such a course. Two hours each Tuesday night for 6 weeks with a practical bee visit on one Saturday. Run by a wonderful teacher, Deanna Corbett.

Beginning bee keepers learning from John Berry