Resources

North American Honey Bee Expo - See what the world is doing with bees and how you can be a part of it all. Great educational experience, meet new beekeeper friends, honey show and crafts.

Terminology

Apis Mellifera - The common honey bee.
Hive – The container the colony lives in.
Colony – The collection of bees. Sizes can range from a few thousand to start to tens of thousands.
Comb – The wax “hexagonal” pockets that bees create to store their food and raise their young. The comb is not hexagonal. The inner walls are circular however the intersection of other cells creates the structure of hexagons.
Foundation – Often wax or a wax coated plastic with the hexagonal design imprinted on it to encourage the bees to build comb.
Queen – The mother bee of the colony. Generally, only one per colony. She is the only female bee that mates. She is the only egg layer and can live for several years. A healthy queen can lay up to 1200-1500 eggs a day.
Workers – The daughters of the queen that keep the colony organized and fed. Only live for about 30-45 days.
Drones - The sons of the queen who only eat and mate once before dying. Only live for about 45 to 60 days.
Worker Brood – Often just called “brood” indicate the presence of female worker bees that have not yet emerged as an adult bee.
Drone Brood – The presence of male bees that have not yet emerged as an adult bee.
Royal Jelly – The milky substance secreted by young bees to feed the larva.
Eggs/Larva /Milk brood – Queens lay eggs that hatch in 3 days. The hatch is called larva. Larva are feed royal jelly which will result in a puddle at the bottom of the cell that the larva lays in. This is considered milk brood.
Waggle Dance – As the forager bees return they signal to the other workers and foragers where they found a resource. It may be water, food or another hive that they are able to communicate the direction and distance to by means of “dancing”. The dance consists of the waggling of the abdomen (butt) while moving in a figure 8 motion. The number of waggles and the direction of the figure 8 motion transmit the message of distance and direction.
Honey – The conversion of nectar to a shelf stable, long-term food eaten by the bees in lean times, summer and winter. Nectar in the hive is not honey until it is capped over by the bees.
Nectar – The liquid carbohydrate collected from flowers that is mixed with bee enzymes and dehydrated to become honey. Nectar is not capped in the hive as it is not yet dehydrated enough to be shelf stable.
Pollen – The protein collected from flower that is used to feed the colony.
Propolis/Bee Glue - Is a sticky substance that bees collect and manufacture from saliva, beeswax, tree saps and other botanical sources to seal cracks in the hive. Propolis has been identified to have anti-microbial and anti-bacterial qualities and is thought to be an important part of the colony's immune systems health.
Bee Bread – A combination of pollen and nectar that is used to feed the colony.
NUC – Short for Nucleus is a small, but established colony of bees with a mated laying queen, comb and resources. Nucs are generally transported in a hive consisting of 5 frames.
Package – A collection of bees, paired with a mated queen, used to begin a colony. They are hiveless and will need more time to develop.
Split – The beekeepers' intentional actions to remove frames and bees from one colony to start another.
Swarm – The natural procreation cycle of a colony. Occurs mostly in the spring but can occur though summer.
Abscond – When all the bees leave the hive. This can occur for several reasons.
Varroa Destructor Mite – The primary pest of the honeybee. A small mite that attaches itself, often to the underbelly, of the bee. While the mite can be tolerated it carries diseases that infect the bee and subsequently the colony. An abundance of mites can cause a colony to abscond or die.
Small Hive Beetle – Another pest of the honey bee that is interested in the protein in the comb. The small black beetle eats the food in the hive and lays it eggs in the food in the hive resulting in contamination and the destruction of the bees food supply.
Wax Moths – Another pest of the honey bee that is more in the left over protein in the comb. As the larva move around in the hive they burrow tunnels through the walls of the comb damaging and breaking open the contents. They also leave a slimy webby trail and can be difficult to clean.

NUC Installation

A nucleus colony needs to be placed where the hive will ultimately be place. Ideally it is left in this place for at least 24 hours oriented in the same direction as the hive is intended to be. The front door needs to be in the same direction.

Sun for a hive is important as it helps to deter some pests. Most say that the entrance should face the southeast, in the norther hemisphere, to help catch the first light and continue though the day. This help warm the hive in the winter and helps serve as a wake up call to the workers in the morning. In the grand scheme of things this is not the most important criteria.

Bees are more capable of surviving cold than heat. While transporting a nuc they need to remain cool and out of direct sunlight. If you would be uncomfortable they will too. Bees naturally generate heat and can maintain the colony temperature as needed. However, during transport vents might get covered and blocked which limits the available air flow. Without ventilation the bees will quickly overheat and die.

A water source is important to a colony. A water source should ideally be located within a few hundred feet of your apiary. Bees need water to drink and use it in an evaporative process to cool the hive and brood.

When you have placed your nuc remove the screen blocking the entrance and walk away. If this is done at night the bees will emerge the next morning and being their orientation flights. If done during the day bee will likely begin orienting flights or begin walking on the outside of the hive entrance.