Nucleus arrival

Gemma and I took a trip to Diss today to pick up the two nucleus’ of bees we had ordered back in May. It was a hectic morning, with bits of hive needing to be organised and moved, frames to be picked up from someone who had stayed out in the garden late into the night putting them together and my three children to get washed, dressed and fed.

However, we soon found ourselves following the beekeeper through torrential rain to his apiaries where we found two boxes waiting for us with quietly buzzing bees inside. Our new queens are sisters, both hatched this year and marked blue.

When we reached the apiary site the wind was really blowing and I was wondering if we had made a mistake, however, once we walked down to the bottom of the hill it was lovely and sheltered and I think it is an excellent site. The nucleus boxes (smaller than a hive box) have been placed on stands where the hives will be until the weather is warm enough to transfer the bees. Once we got the boxes settled we went for the grand ‘uncorking’ which was only slightly marred by the extremely thorough putting in of the bungs, so the grand gesture turned rather into a steady wiggling..

Bees uncorked