Introducing Nucs

You will receive your nuc in a ProNuc box,      It will need to be re homed in your equipment within a week.
Minimum equipment needed:  5 deep frames, deep brood box, lid and bottom board.  And another brood box full of frames within a month.

After you bring your nuc home:

Day 1
1) Position it exactly where its permanent home will be.
2) Allow bees to orient themselves for 24 hrs.

Day 2
3) Move nuc to the side, place permanent hive equipment exactly in it's position (pay attention to opening orientation).
4) Gently pull frames from nuc and place them in the center of their new box, careful to replace them in the same order they came out of the nuc.
5) Position new frames outside of nuc frames, and close the lid.
6)  Feed, feed, feed!
Day 7 Let's find the queen, or eggs!
By now she should have had enough time to begin laying eggs.  Spotting the queen at first is very difficult so don't be discouraged if you don't see her.  Finding eggs is just as good.  Eggs look like tiny grains of rice pointing up from the bottom of the cell.  It may take the queen 10 days or so to begin laying.
Day 8- You will be ready for the second deep brood box when the first is 80% pulled and full.
Simply place the second box directly on top of the first.  Sometimes it helps to pull a comb or 2 from the bottom box up and put in the top box to coax the bees up.  Make sure there are enough worker bees to cover the brood, or it will chill and die.
Continue feeding them until they fill out the second box.


You can inspect your new bees anytime, but I suggest that you wait a week to let them adjust to their new hive and get situated.  The more you mess with them, the longer it takes them to take off, and you might squish the queen! 

Inspections should be brief, and with a purpose!