Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The frames will, of course, be the same size of frame as those in your hives, so you must
let the supplier know what size you want. So if, for example, the nuc is a five-frame one,
simply remove five frames from your brood box in the hive and carefully put the nuc
frames in (see Chapter 5).
The advantage of a nucleus is that it has brood ready to emerge and to contribute to the
colony's development, and the queen will have already laid eggs.
Buying a package of bees
This is the most common method in the USA. A package of bees weighs about 1 or 1.5
kg (2 or 3 lb), with approximately 8,000 or 12,000 bees, respectively. The package box
has four wooden sides and a screen material in the front and back. It is 22 cm (8.5 in)
high, 40 cm (16 in) wide and 14 cm (5.5 in) deep.
An inverted can filled with sugar syrup and placed inside the box provides feed for the
bees during transit. Some New Zealand packages are shipped in tubular containers
with a gelled feeding source. The package contains a young, laying queen in a small
wooden cage with one screened side. The caged queen is well protected during transit
and fed through the screen. This contact with the bees improves her acceptance when
the package is hived.
The main disadvantage of a package is that it will be around three weeks before any
brood emerges ready to contribute to the colony's development.
The type or race/strain of bee that you acquire is often a matter of chance. If you hive a
swarm or obtain hives with bees already in them, then you get what you get and, if the
vendor has any information, ask them for this. A swarm is the same. If you buy bees,
however, you can look in the beekeeping magazines and often there is a choice.
For gentleness - which is all important in urban situations - the Italian or Cecropian
bees are probably the gentlest, while the Spanish or Iberian bee is perhaps the most
