Welcome to the forum, and good luck with this year's bees.
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Just wanted to give an update. My dad and I picked up our nucs last night from Fred Merriam in Braintree, Vermont, and made the one and a half hour return trip -- arriving home just at sunset. We were supposed to pick them up last Saturday night (5/3), however Fred needed to get an inspection done by the Department of Agriculture before he could sell them.
Fast forward to late this morning, my dad and I suited up and transferred the nucs into their new homes. Our first impression was just how docile the bees seemed when transferring. We didn't use any smoke, but it didn't seem like it would have made a difference.
After letting them get settled for a couple hours, we went down and observed them, and much to our surprise, they were already bringing in lots of pollen. It looked like they had orange Tic Tacs on their legs. We live in southern Vermont, and the dandelions are just now starting to pop up. Everything is late blooming this year. Leaves are just starting to pop on the trees.
The extended weather forecast calls for lots of rain, so we are thinking about making some syrup up. Would that be a good thing to do? When we transferred the nuc frames into the hives, we already had installed some frames from a hive that didn't make it last year, which were full of pollen/nectar. That is why we are hesitant to make the syrup. Any feedback on that would be appreciated.
Anyways, the bees seem to be happy, as are we. Here are some photos of our apiary. You can see the nuc boxes that we left on the stand just to let any remaining bees find their new home. We will be removing them tonight. Also, the middle yellow hive is currently empty. We pick up a 3rd nuc from Tim Mcfarline in Benson, Vermont this coming Saturday (5/17). We also hired Yogi The Bear to watch over our bees. Will let you know how he makes out!
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Fast forward to late this morning, my dad and I suited up and transferred the nucs into their new homes. Our first impression was just how docile the bees seemed when transferring. We didn't use any smoke, but it didn't seem like it would have made a difference.
After letting them get settled for a couple hours, we went down and observed them, and much to our surprise, they were already bringing in lots of pollen. It looked like they had orange Tic Tacs on their legs. We live in southern Vermont, and the dandelions are just now starting to pop up. Everything is late blooming this year. Leaves are just starting to pop on the trees.
The extended weather forecast calls for lots of rain, so we are thinking about making some syrup up. Would that be a good thing to do? When we transferred the nuc frames into the hives, we already had installed some frames from a hive that didn't make it last year, which were full of pollen/nectar. That is why we are hesitant to make the syrup. Any feedback on that would be appreciated.
Anyways, the bees seem to be happy, as are we. Here are some photos of our apiary. You can see the nuc boxes that we left on the stand just to let any remaining bees find their new home. We will be removing them tonight. Also, the middle yellow hive is currently empty. We pick up a 3rd nuc from Tim Mcfarline in Benson, Vermont this coming Saturday (5/17). We also hired Yogi The Bear to watch over our bees. Will let you know how he makes out!
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
