A royal outing

Today was one of the most exciting days of my beekeeping life and I came another small, but important step towards feeling like a real beekeeper and not just someone who messes around with bees and does the best he can while trying not to upset the bees too much.
The queen I have been rearing in the nuc (and feeding every day this week in readiness for her touch down in a new environment) was delivered to friends today and put (together with her whole court of about 1000 bees) into a beautiful, new WBC hive.
It started yesterday evening: after a short, sharp shower and approaching dusk, I sealed the entrance to the nuc. In the afternoon, I drove to the school and prepared all my gear. As I was slightly nervous, I had a list to make sure I wouldn't forget anything. After all the gear was together, I removed the feeder and the mugs and tied up the nuc so that the roof would stay on and the entrance wouldn't fall out. Imagine how much fun that would be if the entrance block came loose while driving!

The nuc trussed up, ready for transport

A few bees from the nuc escaped when I took the feeder off, so I had three or four bees following me with an unhealthy interest as I carried the nuc box to the car, which I had parked close to the apiary site. The girls became quite insistent, so I drove the car away a bit, before securing the nuc properly with further straps.

All ready for transport

At a steady 38 mph I drove the bees very carefully to their new home. There the hive was waiting for them. Before unloading the nuc, I checked the hive components and made sure everything we needed was there. Of course it was - just my nerves had to make sure. As they had just had a harrowing 25 minutes or so, being rattled about on the best of England's country lanes, I let the nuc box rest a while by the new hive.

The nuc box, still sealed, next to the bees' new home (opened)

Then it was down to business. We opened the nuc box and transferred the bees frame by frame into the new hive.

One frame in the new hive

Inspecting the third frame before it is transferred

In goes the queen.

Lots of brood on the fourth frame

 

The final frame is slotted in

Checking all is ok.

After all the frames had been transferred to the new home, I used the bee brush to swipe any bees that clung to the walls of the nuc into their new home. Then we put the crown board onto the brood box and a feeder onto that. I say feeder, but it was more like a swimming pool. The bees obviously shared my views, as several went for a swim in the syrup and we had to rescue quite a number of them. One rescued bee decided to stay on my hand until she had thoroughly cleaned herself, making it hard to fill the feeders.

Filling a sugary swimming pool

With the feeder as full as the syrup I had brought along allowed (not even half-full!), we closed up the hive and let the bees sort themselves out. It took them a while to find the proper entrance to the hive, but within ten minutes or so, they had made themselves at home and were busy flying orientation flights in the drowsy afternoon sun.
What a great way to spend a few hours! I am completely chuffed that all went so well and that my friends now have a hive of their own with a queen reared by me from hives made possible by their generosity. Full circle!

The colony in the new hive. WBCs are beautiful!