Installing your first colony

It's a cool morning at the end of May. Anne drives home with a cardboard nuc box on the passenger seat, humming. Her hives have been standing ready in the field for weeks, boxes painted, frames in, registration done. Now she has to move a whole working colony from one box to another without hurting the queen. Where does she start?

First, the good news. Extension guidance describes installing a nuc as much easier than installing a package, because the bees arrive on their own frames, with brood, food and a laying queen. Your job is mostly to move those frames gently into their new home.

Have everything ready before the bees arrive: the hive set up on its stand in its final spot, your veil on, and your smoker lit.

Then open the nuc and lift the frames out one at a time, slowly and straight up. Set them into the middle of your hive box, keeping the brood frames together in the centre. Fill the spaces on either side with your new frames of foundation, so the box holds its full set.

Then feed. A new colony has comb to build and brood to raise, and it can't always gather enough on its own yet. The usual spring syrup is one to one: one kilogram of sugar dissolved in one litre of water. The Ontario Beekeepers' Association recommends feeders that sit inside the hive, like a pail or a hive top feeder, rather than open feeding in the yard in spring.

A package is different, so let's walk through it for comparison. Keep the package cool and shaded until you're ready. Spray the bees through the screen with sugar syrup. Hang the queen's small cage between two centre frames. Then give the package a firm shake to pour the bees into the hive. Over the next few days, the workers eat through a plug of candy and release the queen.

With a package, check after about two days that the queen is out of her cage. About a week later, look for eggs. If there are none, the colony needs a new queen right away. And keep feeding syrup until the bees can gather nectar on their own.

With a nuc or a package, that one week check matters. Eggs mean your queen is laying. And remember lecture four: you don't need to find the queen. You need to find eggs.

Now let's change one fact. Suppose Anne's nuc arrives in late July instead of May. The install is the same, but the clock is running. The Ontario Beekeepers' Association says late July is about the latest sensible time to start a nuc, because the colony needs weeks to build up enough bees and stores for an Ontario winter. Feeding matters even more.

The mistake beginners make is rushing. Tipping frames, banging boxes, or opening the hive every day to see how the bees are doing. Install gently, feed, then leave them alone until the one week check.

Here is the rule, in one breath. Have the hive ready before the bees arrive, move the nuc's frames gently into the centre of the box, fill in with new frames, feed one to one syrup in an in-hive feeder, and check for eggs about a week later.

Next, what your bees will be eating: what blooms when in Ontario.