NUC Time
- Donna Brown
- May 6, 2021
- 1 min read
Updated: Jul 30, 2021
NUC INSTALLATION: 4/24/21
After picking up two new queens on Friday, we made the trip back out to Texas Bee Supply to pick up 2 NUCs. A NUC contains 5 frames of brood in various stages, some honey and pollen and a queen. These 5 frames are then set into a hive box. It’s a cheaper way of buying bees if you already have a box and additional frames ready to go.
Riding inside a car (our truck was in the shop) with 2 NUCs of bees was a bit nerve racking. However, luckily I had the foresight to order 2 NUC bags from the “Zon” a few months before. These are mesh bags to put around the plastic NUC box containing the five frames of bees and tightly tied at the end to keep the bees from roaming freely. Thankfully, we only had five escape artists inside the car during the 4+ hour drive to the ranch and those gals soon found themselves out the window. Bye Bee-licia!
Normally a NUC is installed at least a couple of hours before sunset so the hive has time to orient themselves to their new surroundings and even with our long drive we made it just in time. We’ll leave them be for about a week to let them get settled and working, and do a quick hive inspection next weekend to make sure the queen is alive and laying eggs.
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