When I opened the nuc box, this is what I saw: bees, bees and more bees! Over 25,000 is what Cory told me. Now in the middle of the day most of them are supposed to be out and about foraging for nectar and pollen. I'm not sure about that. This box was so full of bees I think they had a bank holiday or something. You can see in this picture that they have been busy building comb, and it is a little bit wonky, not straight at all.
Here is a shot of all four frames in the box.
If you look closely you can see how the bees have started working on the side of the box (at the bottom of the photo) to build another frame. They are more than ready for more frames to build out with beeswax. They had even started a drop down comb on the inside lid of the box. I pried that off because it was just so cool. They wouldn't have been able to use it anyway.
Now that the box is open, I have to pry each frame out of the box and carefully transfer in to the super (wooden box on the ground, it is the foundation for a bee hive). Sounds simple, doesn't it? Now, add to that the buzzing bees around your head, hundreds of bees on the frame which weighs at least 5 pounds, and the curious bees want to crawl all over the frame as I am putting it into the super, even under the frame where it is supposed to rest on the little piece of wood on the side. All the books tell you to try and not squish any bees because when they die the emit an odor that sends the other bees into a frenzy of concern and they are more likely to try and sting the bee keeper. Oh, and did I mention I'm wearing thick leather gloves and a hat that doesn't fit and keeps sliding off my head. Geez, the problems that come up when you least need them!
The queen was on this frame. Just as I was putting it in the super Barry asked, "Have you found the queen?", and honestly, I hadn't even thought about her. My goal was to get those bees in the new box and get out of there. Plus, I had to do all of this very s l o w l y so as not to alarm the bees. Don't get me wrong, on one level I was freaking out, but on another level I was having a great time. I want to get to a point where I'm not so inexperienced so that I can enjoy it more, if that makes sense. Getting stung day one made me not worry as much about that, but there will always be that "Attack of the Killer Bees" movie scene in my head. Damn media generation stuff. But then I saw her--the queen was moving around the frame! Wow, I actually spotted her! I felt so...so...bee keeper-y.
Within just a few minutes I got all four frames transferred into the "super" and was ready to close up the hive. I am only using one super right now, but as fast as they are building comb it looks like I'll be adding another one in just a couple of weeks. Their four frames were full of comb, so I imagine they will fill up the other four fast.
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