Hiving the bees

[mallt]

On Sunday May 22nd I headed up to Chiron Farm out near Cochran to pick up my bees & to see a demo on how to hive them. The weather was threatening but didn't actually rain on us. As I drove home with a nuc (box) of bees in the back I debated on whether to hive them that day. I decided I'd set everything up but not hive them so as to give them time to settle down after their road trip from BC to the farm & then down to the barn. The plan is eventually to have them in the back garden but until the fences were built I thought it better to have them somewhere else. Cherrie & Max, he owners of the barn where I keep Ariel, said I could keep them down there.
 
 

At home I picked up the hive, some tools and my bee jacket then headed straight back out again. With some help from Cherrie I set up the hive in a little wooded area to the side of their property, away from the horses. I put some water in a horse feeding trough & then set up a box under the hive to set the nuc on. Once everything was set up I put the nuc on the box & opened the little door by pulling off the screen mesh that was covering it. I expected the bees to come flying out en mass but that was far from the case... a couple at a time came out & peered around before heading back in. I left them to it.

I was hoping to hive them the next day but the weather was having nothing of it. You want to play with the bees on nice sunny days, they tend to get pissy when it's grey or raining... don't we all? I noticed the box the nuc was on was not holding up to the weather so I moved the nuc inside the hive with the lid propped up to keep the rain off but still give them plenty of air circulation around the vents on top.

Finally, a week later the weather agreed to be nice I I headed off to the barn armed with my protective gear & tools to put the bees in their new home. I took my extra bee hat & veil so that Cherrie could join in the fun if she so chose.

Because the frames in the nuc were from a Langstroth hive & I have a top bar hive (TBH) I had to but the frames to fit & wire them on to top bars. After arriving at the barn & letting Cherrie know that today was the day, I set my cutting station up in the trunk of the car on top of a tote... all of which was a fair distance from the hive.

Once everything was set up, protective gear was donned by both of use we headed to the hive/nuc. Lots of bees were out foraging, we saw lots coming back with legs laden with pollen, a good indication that the queen was laying & there were larva to be fed. I took the lid off the hive & lifted out the nuc, laying on to of the top bars at the back of the hive. I misted the hive opening & vents with some honey water (rather than smoke) just in case & then unscrewed the top... again there was not sudden cloud of bees, most of them ignored me. I marked the frames to try & get them into the hive in the same order & then, using a flathead screwdriver, I levered the first frame out, it was an uncapped honey frame with very little honey in it. Given how wet the previous week had been (bees don't like to fly in the wet) I wasn't surprised that they'd eaten most of their stores. I had a quick look for the queen but it was very unlikely she'd bee on a honey frame. I shook the bees into the hive... yes exactly as it sounds... a quick down & up movement designed to shake the bees off... making sure to not hit the frame onto anything, that tends to piss them off.

The two frames were brood frames, that means they are a mix off eggs, larva & capped pupa, occasionally with honey & pollen stores around the outside. In this case some of the baby bees were chewing their was out as we watched. After much searching I found the queen & carefully shook her off into the hive. As long as the queen is in the hive all the other bees will find their was in too. The last frame was also uncapped honey. The bees that didn't shake off I used some grass to brush them off.

Here's a brood frame, can you spot the queen?


Here's me about to shake them into the hive:

The green box is the nuc, the spray bottle has the honey water in it.

Here's a brood frame, you'll have to click twice on it & zoom in to see the details:


Here's on of the front of the hive with the bees around the entrance & landing board:

You can see the entrance hole on the nuc with the wire mesh folded back.

Brushing the bees off with the grass:


Lots of bees at the entrance:


& inside the hive:


Some getting to know (& poop) on me!


Almost empty nuc, you can see the vent holes in the top:


Pollen!


The 3 of the 4 frames stacked up, fairly bee free ready for cutting:


When cutting the brood frames you have to pick the best spots... unfortunately this means killing larva & pupae... it was the great baby bee massacre & I felt terrible :(


Langstroth frames have foundation in the middle I had one wax foundation & one plastic for my brood combs. The plastic is a real pain in the ass to cut & I decided to not fight with the honey frames, most of what little honey there was in the frames poured out when I tipped them on their sides to try & cut them anyway because they were uncapped. I chose to just put the brood combs in.
Here's one wired to a top bar ready to go into the hive:


I've lifted up one of the top bars so that I can insert the brood comb. You can see the bees clustered on the bar, this is what they do to start building comb down from the top bar.


Inserting the brood comb:


The two brood combs inside, looking through the window on the side:


Here you can see the bees with their bums in the air, fanning their wings. If they were more vertical (back legs in the air) I would say they were alarm fanning but I think this is just letting any bees outside the hive that this is home, the queen is inside & everything is ok.


The bees were very gentle the whole time, which given how much I was messing with them was very cool. Cherrie lost her nervousness pretty quickly and got quite close, as you can see from the pictures she took.

Here I am giving them some sugar water to provide them with some food as they no longer had any honey stores.

All in all it went well... neither of us got stung & by that I proclaimed it a success! :)

Answer: The queen is near the bottom of the picture, just right of centre. You can only see her abdomen, she's much bigger than the bees around her & mainly gold, not much in the way of dark stripes. See her now?! :)

Comments

[oblivions.livejournal.com]

Will the wired comb fall from weight? Or will the bees mend it, and fasten it to the wooden frame its haning from?

[mallt.livejournal.com]

The wire through the plastic foundation was fine, I was a little worried about the one through the wax foundation but they both held long enough to get them into the hive & yes the bees have "mended" the gap, it's all attached to the top bar now.

[oblivions.livejournal.com]

this is very cool!