How to get your bees
There are 2 options for getting bees to start your apiary: buying a package of bees or a nuc (nucleus colony).
Package: Should include a live queen in a queen cage, with or without attendants, and close to 3 lbs of live bees.
- Pros:
- Order ahead. You know you're on the list!
- Cost. Typically cheaper by $25 or more than a nuc.
- Not bringing in brood diseases. These can cripple a hive and be difficult to diagnose; but brood diseases usually come in the comb. Or rather, they are easier for a colony to overcome if they don't also have comb with brood disease in it.
- Cons:
- Queen issues. Because the queen is not related to the workers, and she was recently mated, and was shipped cross country... the bees may find her defective (even if she isn't) and supercede her. That's very dangerous for a young colony.
- Slow start because there's nowhere for the queen to lay. In order for the bees to build comb, temps have to be relatively mild. And they have to be well fed. Hard to do that in April, in Ohio anyways.
Buyer beware: First, know that the delivery date may be a lot more floaty than you expect.
There can be a lot of weather-introduced delays; rainy weather in CA during the almond bloom makes for a
delay in package bees arriving at their next point (because that's where the package bees come from).
Second, There may be a 1/2" layer of dead bees at the bottom, but it should not be too much more.
Discuss ahead of time with the seller the expected condition of the package of bees.
Whether the seller is willing to discuss this tells you a lot about what
it might be like to work with them if there is a quality issue with the shipment.
Third, thought you can't check the queen when you get your package, you MUST check to see that she is alive when installing her.
Take a pic if she isn't; if you bought 2 packages, or a nuc and a package, combine the queenless one with the queenright.
A long queenless stretch is a real challenge for bees to overcome; find a mentor or experienced beek to help if the queen is
dead and you only ordered 1 package.
Package bees are often dangerously dehydrated when you get them; spritz their container with water
as soon as you take possession of them.
Nuc: Should include a laying queen, 3 frames or so that have brood, and 2 frames with stores and space for the queen to lay. And frames well coated with bees.
If you go to the beeyard where the
bees are being kept, and they load the frames into your box, you have a chance to
look at the frames. Take a pic of each one. If you pick up the nuc
from the beeyard in a cardboard box, snap a pic of each frame before you install it
in your hive.
Two flavors of nuc: a southern nuc, and a local nuc.
The southern nuc is being produced by someone
with hundreds of colonies, and a serious expertise with bees. That is likely not the person you are talking to
when you order bees. That southern nuc may have frames that
were in CA pollinating the almonds this spring, or from colonies in southern states
used for queen rearing in spring. The actual seller is usually a distributor, who knows nothing of the
condition of the beeyards from which the nuc came.
The local nuc is sold by the person who put the nuc together, from their apiary.
It's hard to sell nucs if you are not successfully managing your bees - there won't be extra for anyone else!
And the local beekeeper is more likely to be consistently available to answer questions -
or help address a problem with the nuc.
- Pros (to either nuc):
- The bees get a jump start on growing and foraging, since they have 5 frames to spring forward from.
- You get a jump start on seeing what a drawn frame looks like, and seeing brood in all stages.
- Cons:
- Brood frames can contain brood diseases, which can cripple your hive. Signs can be present on the brood frames when you get them, hence the necessity to take pictures of how things look upon arrival.
- They are a bit more expensive than a package.
Got all that? It's a lot to digest! And there is no right or wrong way - the factors have to be weighed for your situation. It's important to be educated about what you're getting.
What about getting the bees INTO my box?!?!
For installing a package, you'll essentially be dumping the bees into the box, putting the lid
back on, and leaving them bee. It sounds terrible - what?!?! dump 10,000 bees into a box in my general vicinity?!?!
But be aware the bees will not be defensive. That's why so many videos on Youtube (look up "how to install a package of bees")
feature people without veils. Check out this video from Kelley Beekeeping Supplies
for a thoughtfully prepared lesson on package bee installation.
For installing a nuc into your equipment, the directions are a bit different.
Check out the Crazy Russian Hacker
for a demo. He uses smoke to subdue the bees; try 30% sugar syrup in a spritz bottle first.
Be advised there will be more older bees in the hive, who may "Buzz" you...
but they still won't be defensive the way a typical hive would be if you picked it up,
shook it up in the back of an ATV and then transferred the frames to a box. These bees
are confused, and will fly out immediately to start orienting and getting to foraging...
the sooner you move the frames into their permanent home, the sooner they will settle.
A note about the bees left behind in the box or package:
You can gently upend the box or package, and tap it over the hive - maybe 5 inches above the hive -
and the bees will tumble into their new home. Remove the cardboard box ASAP
as the bees will smell evidence that bees lived there, and try to investigate.