#13. I AM A BEEKEEPER!!

Mike, one of my classmates, picked up my two nukes along with his a week ago.  The next day, Wednesday, he brought my two nukes to the 4-H field in Riverhead where we had a field demo among the half dozen or so hives.  This field is across the street from the Cornell Extension buildings where we have our classes, and I think we will start out all of our monthly classes from now on, in this field, working these bees, led by our class leader Ray Lackey.

We transferred the boxes of bees from the back of Mike's pickup into the back of my Honda Element and covered them with a large overturned cardboard box.  Then we went to class, and all seemed quiet enough when I got back to the car after class that I went late-night grocery shopping in Riverhead before heading home.  Reached Montauk around midnight.  Getting the nuke boxes into the bee yard in the middle of the night was a little scary.  I aimed my car headlights in the direction of the distant hive stand, grabbed a box of bees and headed off down the muddy, rutted hill toward the back of my property.  The boxes, by the way, were much heavier than I'd expected.  Almost as heavy as a small cinder block.  Also, the boxes were warm.  You can feel the heat of the colony right through the wood.  And I was very aware that if I stumbled and dropped a box that it would be a disaster.  But I didn't.  I got both boxes onto the hive stand when I noticed that there were a few bees on the outside of the box, quietly hanging on.  Good thing I didn't grab them when I lifted the nuke boxes.  I pulled the foam plugs out of the entrance holes of the boxes and went to bed.

Next morning, Thursday, I went out to check the bees.  This was such a long-awaited moment - honey bees in my backyard!!  The red nuke (I have my two hives color-coded) had a number of bees flying.  Not much was going on with the yellow nuke.  I started wondering about doing the transfer of the nuke frames into the hives boxes.  Thursday was not a great day weather-wise, but the forecast for the rest of the week looked a lot worse, and I wanted to do the installation in the best possible weather, as we'd been advised that the bees get testy during inclement weather.  By afternoon, the red hive was going great guns, with a constant stream of bees going in and out.  Still only minor activity at the yellow hive.

Nuc boxes on either side of the hives, Wednesday, 4/20.

I should explain how I have my hives configured, because all the hive elements will come into play in this, or future, posts.  The red hive has a base, or 'hive bottom'.  Directly above this is a 'varroa screen' (more about this in future posts), which forms the landing pad for the bees (the red 'tongue' that is visible).  In a cavity between the hive bottom and the varroa screen, which cannot be seen here, is a white plastic tray that can be slid out from a slat at the back of the hive.  This tray collects debris, including some pests, that fall through the screen, and may help in monitoring the health of the hive.  The next two boxes, with the hand-holds, are the hive bodies - the boxes that contain the frames where the bees will actually be living and breeding.  Between the upper hive body and the metal-topped 'telescoping hive cover' is a styrofoam box feeder.  This is where the sugar syrup is stored and there's an interior access-way for the bees to climb into the devise and drink the syrup.  I should be able to remove this feeder once the bees are settled and there's plenty of flower nectar for them to forage.  Now note that the yellow hive is taller.  It contains all the elements of the red hive, plus one more - a 'pollen-collecting drawer' (indicated by the light-colored bar).  It's a complicated contraption - a series of wire mesh and wire mesh cones through which the bees pass, and which scrape off and collect some of their pollen load.  I thought it would be a cool thing to experiment with.  I'm now having second thoughts.

Now back to the hiving of the bees:  on that Thursday I waited until late afternoon, when the weather had cleared nicely, and decided to take a deep breath and go for it.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous and at least a bit scared.  I suited up, got my smoker going, and removed the cover and the feeder box from the red hive, exposing the inside of the two stacked medium hive bodies.  I had removed all but 3 frames in each box, because I thought there were 5 frames in each nuke box, and I'd be transferring all of theses into the hives (note that I have the 'lightweight' 8-frame, instead of 10-frame hive set-up).  I removed the duct tape that secured the top of the red nuke, pried open the top, and puffed a little smoked over the frames with my smoker.  Then I removed the top completely and gave a teensy bit more smoke.

(Note:  you're not allowed to laugh.)

Me getting ready to install the nucs.  Hive tool in hand, smoker next to me on hive stand.

The nuke box was teeming with bees.  They were calm, but packed solid.  Using my brand new metal hive tool for the first time, I started working the frames from left to right, easing free the first frame.  I picked it up and examined it.  One side, the one facing the inside of the box, had a lot of drawn comb, i.e. the bees had started making and shaping wax into comb.  There was not much on the outer - the opposite - side.  And though the comb was drawn, there was not a lot inside the cells.  Maybe some pollen.  I didn't look for too long, because I wanted to get the operation over with.

Frame with drawn comb.

The next 3 frames was where all the action was.  As one of the photos below shows, they were pretty solidly covered with bees.  I never saw the queen, even though I looked.  But I didn't look too long, because I was nervous.  The final frame, like the first, didn't have a lot going on.

But I did it!  I had transferred the bees.  Now the only thing to do was to place the feeder box on top of the hive body and fill it with the sugar solution I'd prepared in a 5-gallon bucket (1 part sugar, 1 part water, by weight).  I put the metal-roofed cover on and I was done.  Or I thought I was done.  I didn't count on there being a huge knot of bees left in the bottom of the nuke box.  So I placed the box on the ground leaning it against a leg of the hive stand.  ( A few hours later, not a bee remained; they had all found there way into their new home.)

I repeated this process with the yellow nuke, but what a different experience.  There was almost nothing going on at the outer frames - one of them had barely been touched.  As I mentioned, I had set this hive up differently, with a pollen collector, and I wondered if this might stress out the bees, which were clearly not as strong as the red hive.  But I put everything together just the way I had planned it.  The last thing I did was to install a metal gismo called a 'mouse guard'.  This adjustable metal plate keeps large stuff, like mice, out of the hive by reducing the size of the hive entrance.  It also reduces drafts so it can be helpful to the bees during cold weather.  And it has been an unusually cold Spring.

Completed hives with metal 'mouse guards' in place.

The next day it was all I could do to keep away from the hives.  A gloomy morning turned warm and sunny and there was a veritable cloud of bees around the red hive.  I was concerned about the yellow hive - slow, steady line of bees going in and out, but nothing like the red hive.  Also, I lifted the back of the covers to peek into the feeder boxes.  The red hive was lapping up the syrup; lots of bees were at the trough.  Not one bee feeding in the yellow hive.  By late afternoon things had changed.  The red hive had slowed down and the yellow hive appeared to be flying more.  I felt better.  Eventually, like within a couple of days, the yellow hive was using the syrup, but still nothing like the red hive.

I have to say, Mike had told me that he lost a whole day's work because he couldn't tear himself away from his bees the first day he got them.  I'm having the same experience, and I'm sure most of our class is equally obsessed.  I find myself making excuses to go out to the bee yard at least once every couple of hours.  Thankfully I positioned the hives so that I can even watch them from the comfort of my leather recliner in the living room.  I just can't seem to get enough of bee-watching!  I'm worried about the yellow hive.  But I'm hoping that it's just because the red hive colony is larger, and that Team Yellow will catch up eventually.