Here’s some important details and tips for successful transport and installation.
You will be transporting a box of live honey bees. Follow these steps to prepare:
Arrive with a place to carry bees home (i.e. tie straps if going into the back of a truck or a mesh nuc bag or old bedsheet to wrap the nuc loosley).
Bring a smoker and bee suit, in case of mishap upon your trip home.
On warm days, strong nucs must be kept cool during transport. Do not leave them in an enclosed car or trunk or the bees may overheat and die!
Our nucs generally go out very strong and full of brood, and are thus HUNGRY. Please be prepared to feed them sugar syrup immediately when you arrive home!
Installing a nuc is simple. Follow these steps for success:
Have your gear ready and your smoker well lit.
Remove frame from an empty hive to make room for the ones inside the nuc.
Place the nuc beside the hive keeping the same orientation as the hive.
Gently give the nuc a few puffs of smoke to the bees inside the nuc.
Remove the lid to get access to the frames with the bees.
Give them some more smoke as needed but only enough to drive the bees down.
Gently but deliberately loosen the frames with your hive tool and remove the first frame.
Be careful to not roll or squish the bees or possibly the queen. Squashed bees release alarm pheromone which can make the bees aggressive.
Inspect the frames one at a time looking for food, bees, eggs, larvae, and with luck, the queen.
Place the frames into the new hive keeping them in the same order and positions they were in, inside the nuc box.
Inspect the now mostly-empty nuc box for remaining bees and/or the queen. Gently tap the remaining bees into the hive or, in the case of the queen, catch and place into the hive.
Introduce a feeder if needed to subsidize food until a nectar flow starts.
Replace the inner cover and lid and wait a week to 10 days before inspecting their progress.
Leave the nuc box out beside the hive to allow for any last stragglers to find their way to the colony.
Keep feeding as needed and regulate space as the bee colony expands.
Additional questions or concerns? Please email our resident beekeepers at [email protected]
