Moved bees from Nucs to new equipment

Being the weather looks like it has stabilized and we seem to be into a more spring weather pattern, I have moved the package bees that I started in five frame nuc boxes into new 10 frame equipment.

I set the nucs in front of the hives they were going into. They have been there for several days. They are flying and bringing in pollen. The equipment they are sitting in front of is getting retired.

This is a pretty tough looking bottom board

I have set the new equipment in place. You can see that the nuc is not overcrowded and has ample space for a three pound package of bees

 

The new hives are set and frames are on the outside edges of the hive. I have a frame of honey in the hive and I will add a new 1/2 patty of a pollen patty.

When you remove a frame from the nuc box, do so carefully. The queen could be on any frame. In this pic, I picked the outside frame with the least amount of bees on it. I was right, the queen was on a different frame. I then added the rest of the nuc frames to the 10 frame box.

This was one of my insulated boxes I made. I put the frames in the 10 frame box and fed the bees ProSweet. There was not a lot of food left in the nuc. So my interaction with the bees was well timed.

Here is the end result. I put bricks on the lids to hold them down. The third hive has a brick standing on end. This is my signal to check the queen on my next visit.

By having the nucs in close proximity to the hives that the bees will being moved into. The bees know where they live. So when the frames are moved into the 10 frame equipment, the nucs are taken away, and the bees quickly discover their new hive.