My Queen and Her Subjects Arrive - Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - page 41

I carefully placed the box of bees in the hatch of my Jeep and sprayed them through
the screen with a sugar-water solution I'd mixed at home. The sugar, besides feeding
the bees, also helps to calm them by filling their bellies. While licking the sugar off
their bodies, they become fat and happy—a form of honeybee intoxication. Inside the
wooden box I could see that the bees had formed a tight cluster that appeared to be
hangingfromthetopofthebox.Theyletoutagentleandsteadyhumthatsoundedcon-
tent. I fastened the box of bees with a bungee cord to the floor of the Jeep and closed
the hatch door. Once they were all tucked in, we were on our way. I drove home, taking
care to not bounce the bees around and upset them, yet all the while I felt provocative,
knowing I was driving around with live honeybees in my truck.
We pulled into the driveway, all 20,001 of us. Before removing the box from the
truck, I gave the bees one more squirt of sugar water. They still seemed calm as I car-
riedthemintomycoolbasement.Theywouldbesafeawayfromdirectsunlightorcold
breezes that might give them a chill. I prepared another batch of sugar-water syrup us-
ing one part white granulated sugar to two parts water. To mix it up, I just had to boil
the water, turn off the flame, and then add the sugar. I stirred it well until the sugar dis-
solvedcompletely,andthenletitcoolbeforegivinganotherservingtomybees.Tomor-
row, Mr. B was coming over to meet my girls, as he called them, and to show me how
to properly hive them. I had read over and over about how to properly hive a package
of bees, carefully reviewing the steps and the photos. I'd even watched a video loaned
to me by the bee club. But I was grateful that there would be an expert on hand for my
first time.
Other Ways to Acquire Bees
Many new beekeepers are steered toward buying packaged bees, since that's
the easiest and most common way to establish a new hive. However, honey-
bees can be obtained in other ways besides ordering them through the mail.
Somebeekeeperssellframescontainingworkerbees,amatedqueen,andex-
istingnewbrood.Yousimplyputtheseframesinsideyourhive,andthebees
do the rest. This frame is called a nucleus hive, or simply “a nuc box,” and
gives the colony a jumpstart, because you don't have to wait for the queen
to mate and lay eggs. Another way to acquire bees is to capture a swarm of
feral bees, but wild bee colonies are rare in the United States. Finally, some
beekeepers with established hives simply split an existing colony.