How I Spent My Saturday With The Bees – A Beekeeping Adventure
If you’ve been following my beekeeping adventure posts you know that once again the bees at the Greensboro Science Center where I am volunteer beekeeper, disappeared. I am not capable of expressing how much this situation saddens me. What I can express is the passion I have for these sweet, valuable little creatures by starting again with new colonies. If you missed reading about the losses this year you can read the story here. If you keep bees please comment and let me know if you lost any hives this year and what you are doing about it.
In this post I tell about how I found a few bees and I thought a queen in one of the hives. We crossed our fingers and hoped they might survive but alas, no! We did have more cold weather in March and that could’ve been why they didn’t survive but I suspect that they fell prey to whatever took all the rest.
The only good thing that came out of the whole mess was honey! I was able to extract a little over 2 gallons of honey from the vacant hives. Here is the post as well as a video of how that process takes place. A different type of beekeeping adventure.
So onto late April of this year – time to install new hives. I spoke of the options we had for choosing new bees this year and we decided on Italian bees again. We did order from a new vendor, Brushy Mountain right here in N.C. Funny, I used to order from them at times when I kept bees in Texas and now I can drive there. It was a beautiful Saturday for a drive into the mountains to pick up the bees. I was happy my man Dan was along for the drive and to help expedite the installation.
We wound our way through the mountains and enjoyed the burst of spring on the mountain sides and in the hills and valleys below. We arrived around 10 a.m. to find stacks of nucs ready for pickup. Obtaining nucs was new for me and I definitely like it much more than the bee buses I’ve purchased in the past.
Nucs are just like hives but smaller with only 5 frames inside. This makes it less stressful on the bees as all that is required of the beekeeper is to lift the frames out of the nuc and place it in the hive body. My hive body is a 10 fame hive which I put 8 frames in. This allows the bees to build out their comb a bit more if they choose. I simply fill in the remaining 3 frame spaces with foundation that the bees build on.
Because I’d never worked with a nuc before we stuck around for a demo on nucs as there is always something to learn in a beekeeping adventure. Then we headed out for the 90 minute drive to the science center. It was a warm day, perfect for beekeeping except it gets very hot inside a beekeeper suit!
Saturdays are very busy at the GSC with tons of families strolling through the exhibits indoors and out. On this day I had quite a curious crowd. When visitors realize they will have the privilege of seeing what is happening inside a bee hive they stick around. I enjoy being able to educate kids and the grownups accompanying them. It’s one of the best reasons to keep bees at the science center. Did you know that the GSC is accredited by the AZA – Association of Zoos and Aquariums?
Next my man Dan began the job of prying open the nucs to release the frames. They had been screwed shut for the safe transport of live bees. Once he got them where I could lift off the lids I began the business of placing each frame into the hive body. This is the time when I inspect each frame, both sides to see if I can find the queen and check for eggs and larva. Luckily I found both queens on this day as well as plenty of larva and eggs – this means we are off to a strong, healthy start!
The day came to a close as I placed the tops on the hives. A successful and easy transition moving my bees from the nucs to their new homes. I too am curious to see how they are coming along a few days after I secure new hives. The first inspection would take place about 7-10 days later, depending on the weather.
I leave you with a video of the new hives at the GSC as I closed up the last hive. I will be posting to keep you up to date on the newest members of GSC. Please leave me a comment if you keep bees and have any thoughts or suggestions regarding the many losses of bees and what you are doing about it! The beekeeping adventure continues!
