Bee Preparation and Transfer
We have bees! How did we prepare?
1. Research
Building a Hive From the Ground Up
Overwintering bees in Wisconsin Zone 4
2. Find someone who sells bee nucs and supplies.
The Bee Shop is a local amish shop that sells nucs and supplies. These nucs are shipped back to Wisconsin in the spring. I also got the name of someone who sells nucs that have been overwintered in Edgar, Wisconsin. We are getting one nuc from each to start and compare how they do. Friday May 13, 2022 I picked up our first nuc from The Bee Shop (shipped to Wisconsin today; breed Carolinian) and will transfer the bees with my son after they have acclimated for 40 minutes to an hour. Tomorrow I will pick up the Wisconsin overwintered bees and my other two children will help transfer the bees from the nuc to the hive.
For initial supplies we bought:
1. Two complete hives. One set of wooden bee boxes and one insulated plastic hive. We will be comparing.
2. Deep frames with wax
3. Queen excluder for each hive
4. Smoker
5. Hive tool
6. Two 3-layer bee suits that are ventilated
7. (2) Apigaurd for mites. I will need to pick up two more to complete treatment. This treatment is considered organic and needs to be applied outside the period of honey flow. For zone 4 in Wisconsin it looks like I want treatment to be completed before June 10.
8. Spacer rim-used between the deep hive body and inner cover to give the bees access to the Apiguard.
I did not purchase anything for supplemental feeding to the bees. * The owner said a good rule of thumb is that they should not need supplemental feeding once the dandelions bloom!
9. Bee gloves! I forgot to get bee gloves so we will see how the transfer goes without!
3. Set up site to place hives.
Decide on a place for the bees to live. Moving them is a horrible job from what I have read so be sure of where you put them. I believe 300 feet from house is a good distance to have them away. I think ours may be a little closer. They are at the top of the hill and oriented facing south. There is no wind barrier but I am working on ideas and research yet.
The hives need to be level or the bees will have a mess! We used a pallet and blocks to make a level platform.
4. Transferring the bees from nuc to hive body.
1. Pick up bees.
2. Allow them 40 minutes to an hour to acclimate. They need to be set on top of the hive or in the same spot the hive will be. I set them on top and will have to move the box off to the side when we transfer.
3. Our nuc had tape over the entrance hole. I pulled the tape off to allow them to go in and out.
4. You will need to have your smoker lit and bee suit on. Once acclimated you will take the top off of the hive body while gently smoking the bees to keep them calm. Using your hive tool, gently break apart the first frame. We are putting 5 frames into a 10 frame hive body. The new frames will go in the middle so we have 2 frames on one side and 3 on the other. We will place the frames in the same order and same orientation into to hive body after the first two empty frames.
As you put the frames in you want to look for the queen and inspect and observe what the bees are doing. So far I am not completely sure what I will be looking for, but will continue to research. If you find the queen-awesome! Make sure to not squish her. If you don't find her the behavior of the bees should let you know she is there somewhere. They will stay on and with the frames. Once they are all transferred then replace the top. We are treating for mites so will place the spacer rim with the Apiguard on top of the frames. Next is the inner cover and then the outer cover.
***We love bugs outside but cannot tolerate them in our house. So we have our house sprayed. I can't not. An article said to close the holes so the bees have to stay inside on the days there is any spraying in the area.
-Lisa