Successful move of Ferrell Bees to Nuc Box

To start the transfer of the bees into a Nuc box double deep, I needed to be well hydrated and fueled.  What better way then to eat a breakfast and some coffee. 

The day got a late start because I have work to do in the AM and this job with the bees is secondary.  I wanted to start at 9AM and be done at 11AM.  I started I think at 10:15 and finished at noon.  I don't have photo's of the removal, but I do have video's.  They're not uploaded at this time.  It will take a few days to do that I imagine.  Uploading is slow to YouTube. 

Preparations no matter what you do and think of something or a few things always are not thought of.  Nothing like having to stop in the middle of tearing comb out and trying to put in it a frame, only to realize you don't have a knife to cut the comb.  Run to the house and with sticky gloves you open the handle of the door and get a knife.  You now have honey coated door knobs and honey dripped from the gloves.  I forgot the bee broom too.  Smoker went out so Elisa had to light it again.

Show you some photo's of preparation prior to moving the bee hive to the bee stand.  Remember they were on the 4x4 wood post for the duration of acclimatization.  I should have put them on the bee stand where they are now as that's the permanent place they'll be.  I didn't know that until today why that is important.

I think I only put 1 frame of honey comb inside the Nuc Box double deep.  I had 4 frames of brood and honey.  Not much brood comb in the bee hive.  About 75 percent was honey comb.  Some capped and some not capped.  I didn't keep any of it.  I didn't want to fool with it.  I instead put it all on a piece of plywood and let the bees have at it at will.  They will clean it up and use it.  I then will throw it away as it will attract things I don't want near the bee hives. 

I didn't get stung and nor did "E".  She helped me out with this.  Lots of bees landed on both of us.  Dressing to not get stung is pretty much a smart thing to do.  These bees were very calm and gentle in comparison to my previous experience.  On a scale of 1 easy and nice and 10 being severerly dangerous this removal was a 2.5 

We spent about 25 minutes cleaning up and getting the bees off of us.  I returned about an hour later to see that the foraging bees had landed on the cardboard and massed.  I went to go get suited up again and dump them in the Nuc Box.  The foraging bees were clinging to the 4x4 pose in mass, so I scraped them with my hands onto an old cookie sheet.  I then attempted to dump them in the entrance of the bee hive.  It only was about 10 percent successful if that doing it.

Tonight I walked around and looked at the bee yard.  I had my red lens light on my phone.  Looked at the bees and it pretty much has some sort of order.  I don't know if it's because eventually bee hive #1 let them in or if the Nuc Box entrance was found.  Only a small cluster of about 300 bees were on the 4x4 post.  Scattered clusters are around the Nuc Box, cardboard and the original Owl House.  Hopefully Thursday some sort of order will start to play out.  Dead bees need to be cleaned out by the bees in the Nuc Box double deep and the rest of the bees that have not found the entrance need to have some sort of direction given to them by the foragers.  The bees know the land, but the nurse bees need the scent and activity to be guided I suspect to the entrance for those that remain.

to close the bee entrance

to catch the nurse bees that don't fly Makes it easier to sweep them up to put them in the NUC Box

Pry Bar used to remove the Owl Box Back to expose the bee hive.

Remember this is the box that I built.  This makes the 2nd box for the Nuc double deep.

I tried hard to have everything and think about it before I did the removal