The Abita Honey Co. bee yard is growing….

This past weekend we were able to add three new hives to the bee yards. These new hives are courtesy of nucs developed from new swarms. The comparison between these nucs, and a previously installed package of bees is just night and day!

For those new to beekeeping, there are different ways to start a hive. When possible, it’s best to start with a nuc or nucleus which is an already established bee colony on 3-5 frames of foundation. This way, the hive has a good head start with a mated queen, a base of good comb started, and most importantly, a good amount of brood (eggs) already started. Nucs can often be purchased from established beekeepers. For the more industrious beekeepers, nucs can also be obtained by trapping a swarm in the spring. More on that later….

But sometimes, a beekeeper may not have access to a nuc. In that case, a “package” of bees can be purchased from a bee supply company like Mann Lake Ltd. or others. When a beekeeper orders a package of bees, a plastic ventilated box of 10,000 bees (give or take) is shipped via UPS to the beekeeper. It’s actually kind of amazing to receive that buzzing package. I won’t go into the whole process of installing a package of bees, but to sum it up, the beekeeper receives bees and a caged queen who has to be accepted by this colony. The bees are installed in a new hive which typically has no comb drawn out at all. So the bees are starting with nothing. Here’s why that is so challenging for the bees.

The average lifespan of a worker bee is only 4-6 weeks. So a healthy hive must always be producing new workers. A hive started with packaged bees starts with no brood at all, and no frame or comb either. So the bees must first build their comb so their queen has somewhere to lay eggs. The bees also have to immediately start filling comb with food for the colony. Meanwhile, the bees will start to die off as they reach the end of their 4-6 week lifespan. So the first season for packaged bees can be quite a challenge, and a new package should always receive a little extra help with a feeder of sugar water. After all these girls are already stressed and pushed to capacity!

This year, we chose to install a package of purchased bees in one hive. We have had our doubts about that hive from the beginning as these little bees were definitely a bit depleted by the travel. We are supporting them with 1:1 sugar water, and they are holding their own and building comb and brood. It’s just slow going. We do have a healthy queen in that hive, and we are definitely seeing progress. In just under a month we have about four frames of brood, pollen and honey. Here are a few pictures from the “package bee” hive.

Then there are the nucs! The three sets of nucs added last weekend each came with about 4 well established frames containing brood, pollen and honey. Because we wanted to get them settled in without too much disturbance, we don’t have any close ups of those frames, but wow, what a difference.

When we go back in for a full inspection, I’ll add some photos for comparison. We did video the installation of the last nuc just for fun. See below.

From the day they were installed in their respective hives, the nuc bees have been “blowing and going,” and the entrances to those hives are like little bee highways. The nucs have much stronger populations, and many more bees being sent out to forage. It will be interesting to compare the rate of expansion between the hives started with nucs versus our little package experiment.