Honey Bees

Our family likes honey and thus we are now bee keepers.

We took a class and ordered a NUC from Bridgeton Bees in Portland Oregon. Our NUC arrived in April and we transported it to Underwood, WA. After a day and night for the bees to get used to their new location I donned my bee suit and headed out to move the 5 NUC frames to the hive that I bought on Amazon.

I must say that my first time was a bit scary. All those bees flying around – I’m sure that I did not use enough smoke – I had to step away 2 or 3 times just be keep calm. In the end the 5 NUC frames ended up in our brood box and I only got stung once. Stung through my sock on the ankle.

After a few days I ventures out again to check on the hive and all looked well. I was a bit calmer but still did not see the queen. I was worried that the hive would outgrow the 8 frame box but that was not the case. We gave the bees another week than then added a second 8 frame brood box so that they would have room to grow.

The weather has been cool (close to freezing) at night and warmish with rain in the days. When the sun is out and the hive is close to 60 degrees the bees are very active as you can see in the photo.

The plan is to let them be for a few weeks and then to do an inspection with the goal of finding the queen or signs that she is there. And to move a sugar water feeder into the upper brood box. We have had the feeder on the outside of the hive and the bees found it without any problems.

Honey? Not expecting any honey this year as the hive grows and gets established. Next year however we expect or be in the honey.