Just adopted about 20-thousand more daughters!

Really! It is true! I now have two daughters, two grand-daughters and about 50-tousand bee daughters. Thank goodness for a husband, a grandson, two sons-in-law and a male dog to add the testosterone to the family!

Last week we picked up our nucleus hive and brought it home. Our club had taken nuc orders and the truck arrived on Wednesday with a delivery of 150 nucs! We brought it home, set it in the yard next to the first hive, opened the door and promised the girls we would move them into their new house the next day.


Nuc waiting to be housed

Installed and flying happy!

The nucs came to us from Grant Stiles, a NJ beekeeper and bee business person, so they are native to the state and relatively local. Other club members and long time beekeepers swear by the quality of the bees they get from Grant so we were happy to be able to get some for our own.

Well, of course, it was cold and rainy and snowy the next day so they had to wait. Then we had freezing temperatures overnight so they had to wait again. Finally on Saturday it was sunny and warm and we were able to put the nuc into its official permanent home.

It was fun to inspect the frames in the nuc and try to find the queen. We always take pictures of each frame so we can more closely inspect them later. I'm happy to say that we had eggs, capped and uncapped brood, pollen, nectar and the queen!



Caught in the act of laying an egg!