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| Nucleus Hive (NUC) being opened for inspection |
Pick up your bees in an appropriate vehicle.
Honey bees in transit are not the happiest. The
longer they are confined, whether it be a package or a NUC, the more stressed
they become. Would you not be as well? The stress of transporting a colony can
cause them to overheat and cook themselves. This is one
of the reasons why we recommend you pick up your package of bees rather than
having them shipped. They will need constant airflow to keep them
from overheating. An open bed vehicle like a truck is a great vehicle to
transport bees. If you have to load the bees into a car to travel, make sure
you have the windows open and air conditioning on the entire trip. You may get a little chilly but that
may be better than cooking your new investment.
DO NOT pick up your hive supplies the same day you get your bees.
Every hive component
(hive tops, boxes, and bottom boards) needs either a coat of laytex paint or a sealant
to help protect and preserve the wood. The paint or sealant must be dry and the
odor dispelled before you install your bees. Picking up your supplies the same
day as bees will require an additional 3-5 days before your hive will be ready
for the bees. Order your supplies now and get them ready.
Make sure you provide plenty of feed for your new colony.
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| Installed Package w/ a Cypress Entrance Feeder |
Imagine that you have just moved to a new city. Are you going to know where the closest grocery store is located? How long will it take you to build that bookshelf in order to organize your house? While your new colony is learning the environment around them, you will want to provide plenty of sugar syrup for them to feed on. Sugar Syrup is easy to mix and can be fed to the bees in many different devices. Adding feed supplements will provide the additional nutrition to the sugar syrup the bees need. A good rule of thumb is keep feeding your hive sugar syrup until they stop taking it or until the first honey super is added.
It’s never too early to start fighting Varroa Mites.
They are considered one of the key factors
in honey bee decline. A small, bloodsucking tick opens wounds on the bees making
them more susceptible to infections and diseases that can last multiple
generations. Varroa’s reproductive cycle is based upon that of the bees and the
female mites will produce young within capped brood cell. One of the best times
to treat for Varroa is before the bees are able to cap their brood. Packaged
bees will not have capped brood and can be easily treated with a mixture of
sugar syrup and oxalic acid, a natural varroa treatment. In a package
100% of varroa mites are exposed so there is nowhere for them to hide.
