The Bee Exchange: Part 2

In my last post, I left everyone hanging on the edge of their seat in anticipation. OK, maybe not. So without any further ado, the conclusion to "The Bee Exchange".

I lit up my smoker and unwrapped the hive box, it was like Christmas in June. I slowly pried the lid open and gave a few puffs of smoke, the bees obliged by moving down into the frames but there were a few large clusters that had made their ways to the top of the cover and into the corner of the box. I slowly and steadily started moving each frame into the center of new box, since the nuc only had 5 frames I had already inserted another 4 on the outer edges to fill the gap. With all 5 frames transferred over, I began the more difficult job of dealing with the large clusters of bees on the cover. I attempted giving the cover a hard shake to remove some of the bees, hoping they would fall like in all the swarm videos I had watched but they wouldn't budge. I finally reluctantly decided to put the cover on regardless of casualties and in the process crushed a few bees that were along the edge. In hindsight, I really should have used my bee brush to gently brush them off. With the cover securely on I positioned the original hive box and bottom board out in front. The clusters of bees would slowly start finding their way into the hive and I estimated by the time I was back from work they would all be inside. With just 10 minutes to spare, I got dressed for work and headed out. My bees were in their new home, AND I didn't get stung.

As this blog is meant to be somewhat of a guide for those who may be thinking of starting up I've decided that for every major inspection/hive procedure I will list some things that I thought were done right, and some things that I would do differently. So here goes:

Things that were done properly

1) Get to know your Supplier - Alvin and Judy, from what I could tell as a beginner, seem to run a great business. They were both extremely friendly and answered any and all of my questions. It was evident that Judy loved her job and her bees and it showed by how they behaved and their overall health. She was even mention that on Monday a provincial inspector had visited their yard and found zero mites with the new "shaker" testing protocol. Zero mites is virtually unheard of for commercial apiaries.

2) Keep Your Cool - By slowly working the bees and avoiding any sudden movements the bees remained extremely calm while I was moving them around. My wife and neighbour were no more than 4 meters away, and even during times when larger amounts of bees took wing I kept my cool and just slowly backed away. After a minute or two everything would calm down and I'd start from where I'd left off.

Things that could be done differently

1) Have Your Equipment Ready - Because I didn't have my frame rests in, I had to go through an extra transfer process. If I had already had them in place, I could have just placed the hive on the cinder blocks, unwrapped the hive, and put in a few extra frames. Saving me time and limiting bee exposure.

2) Practice lighting your smoker - I had read a few beginner articles stating that one should practice lighting their smokers before getting bees. I completely ignored these because, come on, how hard can it be to light a fire. Well as it turns out, even according to Judy, keeping your smoker properly lit is a difficult task even for a veteran. My main issue is that I didn't put enough material in which allowed for too much air flow and I ended up with more of a flamethrower than a smoker. You want a nice cold white smoke, not a BBQ.

3) Give Yourself Enough Time - While it seemed like a great idea to squeeze picking up bees in between my split shifts, I really should have done it on a day when I had more time. I didn't allot any time if something went wrong and had there been any issues after I had installed them I couldn't do anything because I was at work. This caused a little anxiety because had their been any issues with neighbours coming to complain and ask questions or if the bees decided they didn't like their new home my wife would have had to deal with it.

Unwrapping the box, however I did not shake it before hand like a Christmas present.

Lifting the lid and giving some smoke.

Transferring each frame.

Scrapping off the excess "burr" comb that was on top of the frames.

The bees would eventually figure out where to go if I left them out front. Look at that cluster in the lower right hand side!

Tranquility of the hive when I returned home from work. The first person to correctly find the bee in this picture and point it out in the comment section below will get a free jar of honey from my first extraction!