New Bees Join the Hive
Late last year, Philip ordered new bees to join our hive. They were finally ready for pick up this weekend.
We are very blessed to have an apiary close by, Philip made the short drive to D & J Apiary in Umatilla to pick up the Italian bees. The apiary has been a wealth of information and supplies needed to care for the bees. https://www.facebook.com/dandjapiary
How do you purchase bees?
The bees arrive in a Nuc, which is a temporary hive to transport the bees. Yes, these are in the dining room.
While I could only hear faint sounds in the boxes, the cats must have been able to hear the bees, as both cats came to check out the new residents.
Calming the Colony
Philip’s original plan was not to smoke the bees, however, when he opened the first box, he changed his mind. Smoke is used to calm the bees as you work with them. You’ll see in the video, that they quickly began swarming around him when he lifted the lid, so he got the smoker going to calm them down a bit.
Locating the Queen
He was also able to locate the queen in a couple of the hives, we got some close-up images of the queen in the feral hive. Wild bees are referred to as feral, our first colony is wild-caught. You won’t miss her, we did our best to point her out. She has a long, pointed abdomen.
During the video, I asked Philip if the bees would comingle from hive to hive. While they won’t comingle on their own, Philip learned that we can introduce nurse bees to a hive that we want to enlarge and they will join the hive.
Moving the Bees
Enjoy this video of Philip moving the bees from the nuc to their permanent hives…. the videographer’s commentary is quite entertaining at times….
About the Author: Barbra-Sue Kowalski grew up on a small hobby farm. She was always drawn to farm life, however, she was stuck in an urban life far from her roots. Barbra-Sue was a single mom for 13 years, raising her 3 children on her own. She met Philip in 2018 and they married in 2021. Between the two of them, they have 5 grown children and 5 grandchildren. These empty nesters are following their dreams! As they both turn 50, they are building their off-grid homestead to live the life that they dream about. Learn more about Philip and Barbra-Sue here. Contact them here. To leave a comment on this post, please scroll down.
I think I like watching you from a film instead of being there.
you guys are awesome, really enjoyed watching this 🙂
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Amazing!