Bees emerging from neuc box 3

The third of three nuc boxes my bee buddy and I prepared yesterday for a local school and a couple of new beekeepers.

A frame of brood and a frame of stores from a healthy colony are placed in a five frame nuc box, along with a few bees from the original colony. The bees realise they are queenless and raise their own queen from the brood frame. In about 21 days they should have a laying queen. Once their numbers have built up they can be transferred into a full size hive.

This morning, we opened up the entrances and placed grass in front so the bees have to push their way through. This slows down their first exit and encourages them to "scan" the front of the nuc box so they know where to come back to.

You can also see some of the bees on the front of the nuc box "fanning" to signal to the other bees "this is home".

Filmed in HD on iPhone 4.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Bees
• Beekeeping
• Nuc
• Queen
• Scanning
• Spring
• Honey
• Grass
• Colony
• Birdsong
• Fanning
• iPhone