These are our new nucs. Last year was our first year with bees and for the first few months everything was going great, then our hives were attacked by a huge hive of robber bees that eventually took every drop of honey and killed many of the bees. There were so few left in the fall that there was no way for them to recover...so we are trying again to make it work.On the way home I joked and said keep an eye out for bees in the car. When we got to the street before our street Nathan said hmm, there is a bee on the ceiling...drove a little further and there were 2...turned onto our driveway and there were 8...by the time I parked and got out there were 20+...it didn't bother me that much until I started to realize I still have to move the nucs from the car to the back yard.
One of the boxes was still sealed and easily moved. Then I stood and watched the growing swirl of bees trying to decide my next step. My first thought was to suit up and try to be quick...I knew this was not going to happen, at least it wasn't' going to happen safely , so I checked with the beekeeper that I bought them from and he said suit up and smoke the bees it should be fine...so I thought okay then here we go...
Then I decided to put the nuc in a plastic tub, cover it and have Nathan help me carry it down to the backyard. I suited up, smoked them and gently moved them to the tub and covered it. As we walked it to the back I couldn't help but think about the "can of worms" I was about to open. I made Nathan stand back, opened the box, picked up the nuc and put it in place.
We let them settle out a bit and I pulled back the screen to let them explore their new surroundings...
Happily, no one got stung.
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