Latest Bee News (4/21/2018)
Ken, Mark and Henry ordered some bee Nucs or nucleus colonies. These are small honey bee colonies created from larger colonies. The name is derived from the fact that a nuchive is centered on a queen, the nucleus of the honey bee colony.
It was chilly and a little rainy on Saturday when they went down to Falls City to pick them up. Ken wanted to build a new top board for the hive he was going to use so he waited until Sunday to put his bees in. Although Ken has some of his bee gear on, he had a big hole in his jeans that the bees could have used to get up into his pants.(Could have seen a little jig.) They just weren’t aggressive at all. I wasn’t stand very far away and they didn’t bother me either. It’s very interesting to sit and watch them work.
The pictures and video tell the rest of the story.
Ken did find the Queen. I’m not sure if she was on this frame.
Bee update (6/17/2017):
Although you don’t have do “bee” chores every day, you do need to check on them once and awhile. Right now Ken has the two brood boxes, one for each hive. Inside are the frames for the bees to use.
The bees have been very active and he wanted to check and see if the brood box frames were mostly full. If so, he would need to add a queen excluder and a super.
They weren’t ready for another box but it was fun to watch him work with the bees.
More bee posts to follow.
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The day arrived!!
After a lot of talk and anticipation, April 28th had finally arrived, the day the bees could be picked up. Mark, Henry (a guy Mark works for) and Ken made the trip to Omaha to pick them up. Ken has been spending time building new boxes and cleaning the frames inside the boxes. They really look great now.
He had the area where the bees would sit neatly mowed. He bought a cheap piece of carpet from Menards to lay down so that he doesn’t have to mow too close around the hives. He does have some bee equipment and he’ll be getting more as time goes on. He was more than ready to go!
The three guys made the trip to the Bohemian Cemetery in Omaha. The Bohemian Cemetery has allowed the Omaha Bee Club to use approximately an acre of land on the south side for teaching apiary. They also have a beekeeping market there and this is everyone meets to pick up their bees. Here’s a link if you’re interested in reading more: https://www.omahabeeclub.com/main-st/
The bees came in this box and the queen, which needs to be separated from the others, came in a much much tinier box. The bees don’t recognize this queen as being their queen so they have to get to know her before she can roam freely. The queen’s cage has a screen on top and a candy substance at one end. This little queen box is put into the hive with the other bees. As the bees eat through the candy they become familiar with the queen. Then, once the candy has been eaten, she will emerge from her cage as the queen of the hive. It’s all very interesting.
It was chilly and rainy the day they picked up the bees. Since the bees have no incoming food, Ken already had some food made up (one part water to one part sugar) for the bees that he put inside the hive. Mark’s hives are out on someone’s land so he has to drive to check on them. Ken put his just off of our drive way so he can walk down whenever he wants to watch them and it’s been hard from him to leave them alone some days. He does go down and check on them occasionally. When he first got the bees he had moved the two hives pretty far apart.
Now that they have settled in, he is in the process of moving them closer together. This has been slow since he can only move them about 2 feet at a time. If he moved them any farther at one time, the bees would have a hard time finding their own hive. Soon both hives will sit next to each other on that carpet and boards in the picture.
They are very interesting to watch and we are anxious to be getting some honey and beeswax later on.