Hi there! Today I wanted to show you a tiny video of another way to obtain a colony of bees. As you may remember, I bought a 3 pound package of bees, which is simply a screened box of 10,000 bees, also included is a sugar water can and a queen inside a cage. I brought them home via my backseat. Easy peasy.
Well, these are nucleus boxes of bees.
As you can see, the bees are flying all around and acting like these boxes are their homes. Well, technically, they are, just temporary ones. I don't think I would've wanted all of those bees flying around in my back seat though!
What is the benefit of having nucs over packages? The biggest difference is your nuc (usually) has 5 frames of drawn out comb that doesn't need to be built. It's already been done. They have 2 or 3 frames of brood already in various stages of life, plus 2 or 3 frames of pollen and honey to feed them. A package of bees is starting from scratch. If you've put new frames in a package hive, they need to build that comb and basically build their home from nothing. The nucs get a few weeks head start over the packages. Nutrition is very important in the early stage so you can get the workers in building and brood rearing modes.
I found this awesome graphic that has a fun chronology of the bees stages of life. Check it out.
In the summer months, the honeybees usually only live about 5-6 weeks because they literally work themselves to death. They are so committed to their colony and will do everything to keep it growing strong and healthy. Gotta love that.
Until next time, bee kind! 🐝
How do you get those nuc boxes? Hoe do they get transported to you? I wish you could have taken the lid off so I could see inside - lol. Keep up the blog, this is absolutely fascinating
ReplyDeleteYou pick them up from the apiary you bought them from just like packages. There are entrances that he opened to give them more air so they will be out and about until it gets later in the day. Then he'll close it up and transport it to his hives.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't suited up as they were just in the driveway so there was no way I was opening those boxes :) Thanks for the comment.
This is SO interesting! I caught up on all your posts today and can't wait to see what happens next. Such an exciting endeavor and so fascinating!!
ReplyDeleteHey Maggie! Thanks so much for checking out the blog! It's been so much fun and incredibly fascinating for sure! These critters are amazing! I love them!! I hope you all are doing well! :)
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