I am finding this helpful and informative.  I will be attending a beekeeping school on 03/26/11 in southwest OH to start learning about bees.  I planted   2 1/4 acres of blueberries last fall and plan on starting with bees this time next year. I have a friend in the Cincinnati area raising bees so he will be my go to guy with question, along with this thread.

Hey CWO
Its starting to get warm outside, any updates???? It almost been a year...

by the way Im thinking of going with plastic frames and foundations in the hive body any thoughts on this?
dave

I have been extraordinarily busy - so sorry for the lack of updates.  I have been busy building 2011 hives, 14 nucs etc.  I have photographed the hive and nuc assembly process - as requested last year.  Just the painting alone has been an undertaking.  I will be trying to trap swarms this year - and I'll document that process as well.





I have package bees arriving tomorrow - so I'll photo that installation process so readers can compare and contrast it to the nuc installation that started the thread.





I also plan to try my hand at queen rearing.





So it should be a busy year for me and this thread!
CWO





 

Following closely for my plans for next spring.

In my experience - plastic-base foundation is intended for first-year beeks because it is not nearly as fragile as wax foundation.  My mentor (who is also a state apiary inspector) recommended that I move to 100% wax this year.  IMO it really doesn't matter so much for your first hive.  If you stay in the hobby - you'll probably expand to several hives and will move to wax foundation.  At least that is what I'm told.



Older, more experienced seem to shun plastic in the hive - I think because honey is a consumable and they never know what residue may exist and how it might (slightly) affect the bees.  With CCD on the rampant rise - folks are careful.



I have no personal experience with plastic frames yet - although I ordered (I think) four black plastic frames and black foundation for queen breedeing this year.  But I've yet to use them.  You may want to ask about the frames in the other thread in this forum.



 

Last year I was asked to post photos of hive assembly.  I am increasing my number of hives this year - and I also have decided to build some permanent "Nucs" and swarm traps.  A Nuc is essentially a small hive that holds 5 frames instead of ten.... and can be used for splits (increasing your number of hives), queen breeding and to trap swarms in the wild.  I'll be doing all three this year.  I also need hive bodies for honey super during the nectar flow.



Now that we have define a Nuc as a small, special purpose hive - lets build one.  No rocket science here really.





Here are the Nuc roofs and floors (left) and body parts (right and 2nd pic) as received from Mann Lake.  Good packing and you can't beat free Spring shipping!  All of my 2011 woodware is Mann Lake.













This is what one Nuc and its parts look like.  Roof left - floor right, Body parts center:









Gluing all joints is important to make it waterproof, windproof, to seal the seams and add strength.  Here is the body under construction.  Glue it up and fit it together.













The Mann Lake woodware fit was essentially perfect.... far better than more expensive woodware I built last year.  Very accurate cuts.





The Nuc end going in place:








Glue the corners to keep it waterproof and windproof:











The finished Nuc ready for nailing and paint:








I built 12 Nucs.  Here is the start:

Building a Hive Body:
Building a hive body is the same as building a Nuc - except there is no dedicated floor/roof because hive bodies/honey supers are stacked vertically.
The hive body parts are from Mann Lake:

Glue the parts:






Fit them together:






Make sure they are square.  This is an important step before the glue cures because hive bodies stack and have to align walls.






Nail it and paint it!  You are done!
 

I will post the photo tutorial on installing a Box of Bees and a queen later today.

Very good thread and your posts are very informative,good stuff.

Question: Are there any plants you want to avoid with bees?I've heard that Rhodedendron is bad,something about it makes bad honey.Is that true and are there plants to avoid?
I have a good area to set up a hive,my land borders a large hay field  that is thick with clover.There are also a fair amount of Rhodedendron shrubs around as well.
Could this be a problem?

Here is a source for information:  http://www.rhodyman.net/rhodytox.html



I have also seen sources that say that it an old wives tale.





If you wanted to block off your honey supers for a week or two with a sheet of paper when any undesirable species is blooming - I suppose you could do that.  Note from the source than not all Rhodies are an issue.





Clover is an excellent source of nectar and makes great honey.





 

Awesome thread. Nice M3 by the way.

can I suggest outdoor screws insteaed of nails?  my nails all pulled out after a few years.

carolina jessamine is poisonous to bees and makes honey unsafe.  Not jasmine, but "jessamine."

I have another 5-6 hives to assemble - and I'll try wood screws on a sample of them and see how it goes.



 

This thread began with a photo tour of installing a hive using a "Nuc" colony.  As a reminder - a "Nuc" is a small, complete hive including a queen, about 3,000 bees and five frames of brood, pollen and honey to support the hive and get it off to a quick, productive start.





The other common method of installing bees is a "Box of Bees". A Box of Bees differs from a Nuc in two important ways:





1) A Box of Bees has no frames/wax foundation - therefore no brood waiting to hatch and quickly build the colony - and no stored honey for the colony to use immediately for food.  This means that a Box of Bees are not self-supporting and need feeding and close care for the initial few weeks.





2) The queen is brand new to the colony and they have not had time to accept her.  They were put together at packing time.
So what does a Box of Bees look like?  Here are two:






The small wooden cage on top is a spare queen - not associated with the boxes.
Inside the box are:





1.  Roughly 3,000 bees


2.  A queen in a small wood cage - with a few nurse bee attendants.


3.  A can of sugar syrup for feed during shipping





One Box of Bees per hive.
So lets look at how this Box is installed.  The first thing you need to do is have you hive set up.  Pull out one or two frames to make room for the queen and a lot of bees.  In this photo I had some drawn comb - which is preferable, but not essential.

Put on your jacket and veil and get your smoker fully going.

I use a sprayer with a 1:1 mixture of water and dissolved sugar.  Make sure absolutely no chemicals of any kind were EVER used in that sprayer.  I spray the bees through the cage screen to calm them down and minimize flying when I'm emptying the box.  Just a light spray - no need to get them too wet.





Get you hive tool and SLOWLY, gently begin to pry the wood panel covering the sugar syrup can off.






Cover off - it looks like this:











Notice the white strap emerging from the edge of the can.  This secures the queen cage to the box and is your way to pull her out.  Do NOT remove the staple securing the strap to the box yet.
The next step is a little tricky.  You will pry up the edge of the can, get a grip on it - SLOWLY remove it.  It is important to note that when the lower edge of the can clears the top of the box - the box is now open and bees will eagerly emerge.  So you'll want to have the wood cover just on the edge of the can - to slide closed over the can opening.  A few bees will probably get out - no problem.  Just try not to mash them.

The next step is to remove the queen cage.  Some bees will be clinging to it - no problem.  Get a good hold on the strap with one hand (I use needle-nose pliers) and pull the staple with the other.  Then I rap the box sharply to get most of the bees to fall to the bottom.  In a quick, smooth motion - remove the wood cover and remove the queen by the strap.  Then close the cover.  Some bees will be riding the queen cage - thats okay.... just don't mash them.






IMPORTANT:  The queen will be put in the hive in her cage.  Look at the photo above.  The open chamber in the center holds the queen and a few attendants.  The white circle on the left is sugar candy - which acts as a time-release plug by which the bees will release her over a period of days by eating the candy and creating an escape path for her.  On the right end is a cork plug.  There is also a cork plug over the candy end.  More on this in a moment.






The next step is to secure the queen to a frame.  I use a string and a stapler.  The method is to secure the queen cage between two frames - so you can improvise any way you wish.  The candy end of the cage MUST be easily accessible to the bees.






Now remove the cork from the CANDY end.  (If you remove the other cork she will come walking out).


The queen cage goes between two frame - candy end exposed.












The bees in the box are solely focused on the queen's pheromone scent.  That is where they will gravitate.  Now for the fun part.  There are two ways to release the bees.  One is to just remove the wood cover and dump them through the can opening.  The second is to pry off the small wood edge trim on the box and peel away two adjacent side of the screen.





Here is the first way.  Smoke the bees with a few puffs.   You want to bang the bees as little as possible -  but they cling to the interior of the box fairly well.





Rap the box sharply to free the bees and quickly remove the wood cover and pour as many bees onto the area above the queen cage.












Keep going!

















Rap it again and repeat!

Keep at it until the box is 95% empty.

















Most of the bees will slowly crawl into the hive seeking the queen.  Some number will be in flight.  It could be a large number - so you don't want, kids, pets, neighbors etc around.







Put the box near the hive entrance.  Any stragglers will find their way into the hive.  Depending on your feeding method - you now need to give them sugar syrup.  I use a bucket feeder on top - so I put an empty hive body on top and invert the bucket feeder with 1:1 mix.





Then put your inner cover on - then the telescoping cover.





_________________________





So what happens now?





The hive will settle down in 1-2 hours.  Fliers will find their way in.





The bees will cluster tightly around the queen cage.  They will feed her through the screen.  Over the next few days they will adjust to her scent and will consume the sugar plug in the cage.  Once this is done - she will be released and physically join the colony.





Check the queen cage in a few days.  If they have not released her in 5-6 days - I would release her using the cork plug.  Make sure that if you do this - that she cannot fall outside the hive.





Feed the hive until you have a strong nectar flow.





Check on the hive a week after the queen in released to make sure she is laying eggs.


_________________
I hope this proves helpful to some!
 

GREAT POSTS CWO!

And those Nucs look terrific.

Above I mentioned that there are two ways of releasing bees from the box.  The one show above was through the can opening.



The second is by prying of the wood edge trim securing the box's screen.  Having done both - I prefer the second method as I think the bees are jostled less because their is very little banging.  There is a much larger opening to get them out of the box - so dumping them out is easier - and easier on them.



Here is the installation of a second box of bees using this second method.  I'll just post photos without description now that you are familiar with the process:






























































































Done!

As a devil's advocate post from another beekeeper, I do not smoke new bees.  I spray them with a mist of sugar water so they are less likely to fly, and dump them into the hive by the same method CWO is showing.  

Some new beekeepers will find their mentors to be like me, and prefer not to smoke the new bees, so the mist of sugar water is another method you can use to get them to settle so you can get them into the hive more easily.

CWO. your hives are almost the same color as mine!  

What's a good source for package bees that can be shipped? Most sources I've found are (understandibly) sold out. I was given a nice, clean hive by a friend years ago and read a few beekeeping books, watched tutorials etc but never went all the way with it. I'd like to get started this year...

It is really late in the season to find bees if you don't have a prior reservation.  You might call Brushy Mountain.  Otherwise you can join your local bee group and see if anyone has nucs for sale.



January is the month to really lock-down your Spring source for bees.



 

Understood. I'm going to an introduction demonstration by our local association but their packages are all spoken for. I'll look into Brushy Mountain.

use glue too.  You won't notice a difference until several seasons have passed.  This is especially the case with the finger joints like you have.  They have the most end grain explosed to the elements. I thinka  lap joint is the best as it has the least amount of end gtrain exposed, and this is what causes swelling and contracting, forcing nails out over time.

CWO, I stopped using the queen box for introductions, instead I made a little queen cage from eighth hardware cloth.  I don't take it off until she is laying.  Now I don't have any balling.

This is the method I use now too.  It has given positive results.    You do have to take care getting her in there to not injure her.

So, after a year, you got any good bee jokes?

Like, why is it hard to understand a beekeeper?

Because they use alot of buzzwords.

Great thread OP.  Yet another 'I want to try that as a hobby one day' interest of mine.

TRG

Ok fine, I laughed.

Found a local apiary with 3lb Italian packages for pickup mid-May. I'm gonna reserve mine this week.

no sense in putting it off.  hell you might die one day.  You'll really wish you had started beekeeping then!

I could call my bee yard an "apiary" but then I'd probably strangle myself for being so uppity.

Yeah, I know.  Let me stop killing tomatoes first, and finish learning the difference between a hiller, a tiller, a bedder and cultivator, first, ok?  

There are some bee/wasp allergies in my immediate family.  I need to take that in to consideration.  I have never had the problem, but others have when stung.

TRG

we're all allergic to some degree. Just scrape that stinger out before it pumps you full of deadly bee goo and you'll be fine.  And get a couple of Epi-pens, which you should have in your BOB anyway for allergic reactions.

By the way, along with your bottom plow, cultivator, rotovator, hiller, box blade, power auger, ballast box, FEL, one row planter, you are also going to need a 9 shank scarifier.  Narrow points/sweeps will do.


just kidding about that last part.  5 shanks will be fine.

Its posts like yours that tells me that someone is reading and enjoying the time that goes into it - so sound off!
Thanks,


CWO





 

LOL I know what you mean

CWO,

I just brought home my bees tonight... thanks for this thread.  Your excellent pictures give me an idea what to measure against.

This is a great thread... this is another thing I would like to look into once I get the next piece set up a little.... we had a nice little ground bee colony at the house last summer, I would sit and watch them fly around and do their thing... they got a little mad when I put a rock over the top as a roof to help keep the rain out but they calmed back down.. about mid summer a skunk must of found it and ate most of it in one night... the next night it came back and finished it up.

I'm lurking too.

You may know this already, but those were yellow jackets.  Not honeybees.  

I believe you mean 'ground hornets'.  Yellow jackets, in Texas, are another paper-shell wasp.

TRG

Im am right around 99 percent positive these were wild honey bees, I have seen yellow jackets and ground wasps, these were not it. These looked exactly like bees, they just had the colony on the ground, in the rocks on the side of my hill. I did some research and im pretty sure they were bees.

Kitty- I know you know more then I do but these were very docile, they didnt seem like wasps at all, they didnt have the long body like wasps or the longer legs. They looks like a small honey bee, not a bumble bee.. I dont know either way they werent hurting me or the dogs at all so i was going to leave them till whatever showed up and ate them.

This is the coolest thread on arfcom.  Thanks for the updates and the pictures, I'd love to be able to do this, but I don't think I have the space.  

I got some bees coming in a couple weeks. One for a regular hive and one for an observation hive. Gonna have an indoor bee hive if all works out so I can look through the glass as see them working.

That's regional, I think.  I've heard a lot of people say they use "yellow jacket" out west  to mean something different.  I suspect, though, that in NH, yellow jackets may the same as ours.  They're often confused with honeybees, and are about the only other "bee" which looks like a honeybee.  They are a type of wasp.

This is an extremely common error.  There was an entire conversation about this in the tacked beekeeping thread, starting on about page 3 I think, and going to page 5.  There are good pics on page 5, comparing the two,  posted by thebeekeeper1.  

Kitty I looked at the thread, still pretty sure they were honey bees....they were hairy, and gathering pollen, they weren't in the ground as much as they built their colony on the side of my hill (drops basically straight down) and it is covered with pretty good sized rocks, that is why I put a flat rock "roof" over them so they wouldn't get washed out, when I did that they came out but they didnt attack, I did get away pretty quick though. After the whatever took them out there was some honey in a comb along with some larva, the next night whatever ate them took the rest of it away. I guess I shoulf of taken some pics. They are gone now so it doesnt really matter. Just found it interesting.

hopefully once I get my land up and running I will be able to get a hive started.

I checked the hives today to see how the new installations were doing.  The two package bee hives were booming - drawing comb at a wicked rate and storing honey from an unknown source.  A lot of my local nectar is tulip poplar... and they are a few days away from blooming here.  Lots of eggs, busy flights at the hive entrance and lots of honey being stored means I need to stay ahead of these new hives. So I dropped a honey super and ten frames on both.



The two nucs that I made up from queens are doing okay.  I started them both with two full frames of honey and both have eggs... so they are fine.





I left one frame out of each of the two package hives - so the girls got to work on making burr comb in the open space.  I should have put the 10th frame in when I pulled the queen cages a week ago.  My error.











Close-up of the burr comb:












The made-up nucs were less busy (naturally) - but still buzzing:









Larvae:









Her Highness laying: