May 31, 2016- Five Hives Now

Last night at dark thirty I went to Geezer Ridge over on Back Creek and picked up my two Carnie Nucs, aka: Carniolian queen, 5 frame nucleus hives. I drove my pickup out through Martinsburg on Dry Run Road, over North Mountain and right into a rainstorm covering the valley on the west side.

I backed up to Ed’s garage and he quickly located my boxes, sealed their entrance with duct tape and put them in the back of the pickup. I wedged the boxes between two boards and a couple of sandbags and then strapped them in so they wouldn’t slide forward if I had to brake hard. Now for the hour drive back home.

The rain stopped just as I crested the ridge heading back east. Looking in my rear view mirror, I saw the sun as a giant, blood orange orb, setting under the layer of dark storm clouds. Ahead of me was mostly clear.

When I got home to the bee yard I aimed the headlights at my hive stand as it was starting to get dark. I wanted to install them in their more spacious homes right away. The bees were buzzing fairly loudly in their temporary boxes so I figured I had better get the smoker stoked up. I had been hoping to not use it, but they sounded like they needed to be calmed.

I remembered Ed used a torch to get his smokers going and since I have been having trouble getting mine lit properly, it seemed the way to go. I located the propane torch in the garage and fired up the smoker with broken up pieces of locust tree bark. The torch got things cooking much better than the paper and matches I had been using.

I puffed the smoker occasionally, to keep it going as I made my way back to the bee yard, then twisted up some dried grass and added it over the embers. I puffed a little smoke into each screen vent on the nuc boxes, then opened up the two waiting hives removing a couple of frames from each to allow for more room to maneuver. Opening the hinged cardboard lid, I puffed some more smoke in to keep the bees on the frames, lifting and moving each frame over to their new box in their original sequence. Then I added the two empty frames back in, snugged them all together and placed the hive top feeders on. I poured a gallon and a half of sugar syrup in and put the top lid back on.

“There you go babies. Enjoy your new home.”

It was full dark as I loaded the empty nuc boxes and syrup jugs, along with the smoker, into the back of the truck. I shut off the lights and walked back to the garage to take off my bee jacket and veil, shooing off strays as I went.

Earlier in the day, I checked my other three hives and found various stages of brood in all of them, which was good.

The #1 and #2 package bees had not filled out all their frames yet but the nuc in # 3 was almost there so I added another deep hive box on top and moved two center brood frames up into it to get them started. I topped off all the syrup feeders and they still had some pollen patties left.

So now I have all five of my bee hives filled and can hopefully keep them happy and healthy and eventually get paid back in honey.

-Wendy lee, writing at Edgewise woods, gardens and critters