We've been thinking about doing this
for a while and Mr. Kluges finally talked me into it last September. We
ordered our equipment, put it together, and today, picked up the final
and most necessary component to our new endeavor...
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| That'd be a box full of bees, folks! |
We are now beekeepers!
Mr. Kluges and the girls watched from the back roof/balcony while I installed them into their hive. To start we got a "nuc," which is basically 4 frames out of the middle of a hive. They should have an active/laying queen and a bunch of her daughter bees along with eggs/pupa/larvae in various stages, and honey and pollen, too. All I had to do was carefully remove them from the cardboard
box they're in and put them into their prepared permanent home. I
looked for the queen, but didn't see her, which isn't too unusual considering my lack of experience. :) I'm not too worried (well, not too worried), but I'll look again in a few days and see if I can find her then, or at least eggs, which would mean she's there & doing fine.
Here are some photos of the process.
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| This is the nuc of bees riding home in the trunk of the car. |
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| After I took the first frame out of the nuc, I showed it to my 3 observers. There are bees everywhere on that thing! |
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| Taking a look at a frame of bees to see if I can spot the queen, observing the capped brood, looking for eggs, etc. |
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| Adding 3 new frames to each side of the hive for the bees to fill with pollen and honey for themselves. |
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| Putting on the inner cover. |
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| Since they're
just getting established, I put an empty box on top of the inner cover,
then a container of sugar-water for the bees to help feed them until
they get going finding nectar sources. |
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| Finally I put on
the outer cover and a big ol' rock. The empty nuc box was placed in
front of the opening so the couple of dozen bees still in it could find
their way out in their own time. |
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| I retrieved the
camera from Mr. Kluges while I was still geared up and took a few
pictures. This circled bee is sticking her rear in the air and giving
off the homing pheromone, to help the other bees find the opening and
realize that this is now home. |
I've already been out to look at the hive quite a few times today
because it's just so dang cool. I even saw a bee returning to the hive
with the pollen baskets on her legs packed full of bright yellow pollen
(dandelion?) less than an hour after I'd installed them. The bees seem
to have settled in fine, but I'm looking forward to continued
observations. Yay for honey bees!
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4 comments:
That's so awesome! I'm so jealous and impressed and excited!
Betty, Brenda, uh... good luck...
Oh, and you look very cute in that outfit. No stings!
Yay for no stings! You don't _have_ to have that complete an outfit to do bees, just a veil at minimum, but I knew I'd feel better & more secure if I did have the whole overall w boots & gloves along with the veil!
It's been almost a year since the last post that I can find. Have you posted somewhere else? I have really enjoyed following along your blog.
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