Time for Bees

I have since joined a Beekeepers Club and learned my bees simply swarmed. A normal thing to happen to a newbie that misinterpreted signals. Therefore, when a surprise shipment of nucs came available to our beekeeping club, MrBeans said get 2! So we grabbed up 2 and have been in a dash to clean the old home and get a new home to get these little ladies a comfy place to live.

After immersing myself in a book and talking with experienced beekeepers, we decided to use the 2 10-frame deeps as one home and to buy 3 8-frame medium supers as another home. Honey supers will go on top of each with a queen excluder a little later in the season. We have inner boards and telescoping tops. The inner boards have two holes each that can accommodate a mason jar of sugar water should the need arise. Currently, we are not feeding in that manner. I'm simply mixing sugar water with a drop of lemongrass and putting it in a bucket with sticks out in the middle of the yard.

If you look carefully, you can see two bees on the sticks. They blend well! I'm working on a 5-gallon bucket feeder that is similar to a gravity-fed chicken waterer/feeder. The one I made will work well when I get a lid that fits a bit tighter. Currently this orange bucket is working fairly well so the 5-gallon bucket is a bit farther down on the list of things to get done.
Transferring the nucs into the hives took a little longer than I intended because I have a rip in my face netting. So I was working one-handed most of the time as I had the rip clinched together in my fist. When I needed two hands, I used them quickly and then grasped the ripped section again. For the most part, using the smoker and moving slowly but surely helped A LOT.

I am repairing the rip this week then I'll go out and check on their progress.

For now, here are the hives set up! There were still a few bees in the nuc after I moved all the frames so they are positioned near the entrances of the hives until the next day.

We were in a hurry to get them set up so the new items are unpainted. Honestly, the old ones need new paint. So I'm going to paint a little at a time to keep as few bees from sticking to the wet paint as possible. I'm also going to use a more neutral color instead of stark white. I've seen quite a few in various colors ~ now I just have to pick what color or colors I want to try!