::Pssst:: Wanna be my apprentice?

I'm pleased as punch that YOU (yes, you!) are among the very first to know about BAABA: the Big Apple Apiary Beekeeping Apprenticeship.

What the heck is that?

Lemme tell you: The clever young men and women at the Brooklyn Grange and I have secured a roof in the Brooklyn Navy Yard to host a few dozen hives, most of which will be dedicated to helping new volunteer beekeepers get the hands-on experience they'll need to become WICKED SWEET beekeepers. And YOU can apply for a spot!

Here's the full description of the program, and how to apply. And hop to it, we're reading applications as they come in!

Big Apple Apiary Beekeeping Apprenticeship

Brand new rooftop apiary seeks 12 volunteer beekeeping apprentices for the 2012 bee season (April through October or November). Working in small teams, our apprentices will gain hands-on experience in both basic and advanced beekeeping techniques, with a focus on treatment-free and organic beekeeping, and have the opportunity to pay it forward and mentor next year’s students.

About
This 20 hive apiary – poised on an expansive rooftop in the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard – will play host to NYC’s first hands-on beekeeping training program. Through education and outreach we aim to foster an inclusive community of new beekeepers and arm them with the tools they need to play an active role of the long-term sustainability of our city. The apiary is a joint project of Brooklyn Grange Farm and Timothy O’Neal of Borough Bees.

Benefits & Responsibilities
Our apprenticeship program is structured to give you all the first-hand knowledge you need to start a beehive of your own on your roof, community garden, or backyard. We will provide teams of two to three apprentices with several beehives, beekeeping equipment, basic safety gear, and close guidance through a season of hive management in a small group setting. Our goal is to give you the training you need to apply your knowledge independently by the end of the season, and leave prepared to be a mentor to new beekeepers next year. We’ll also arrange for a few field trips and special guests throughout the season to welcome you into the greater beekeeping community in New York City and beyond.

Apprentices will work directly with experienced beekeepers and gain hands-on experience that covers the gamut of beekeeping tasks: basic hive inspections, pest identification and management, swarm prevention, requeening, combining and splitting hives, and honey harvesting. You’ll also learn about more advanced techniques like cell size regression, queen breeding, and managing top-bar colonies.

Apprentices are required to devote an average of 3-4 weekend hours per week to the maintenance of their hives. On a typical weekend the instructor will give a quick, hands-on lesson (30-60min) using a demonstration hive on what to look out for at that point in the season, at which point apprentices will break into small teams to inspect their own hives under supervision from the instructor. Teams are responsible for maintaining close records of hive conditions and manipulations. Some heavy lifting required, must be able to climb 4 flights of stairs and work in all weather.

Who We’re Looking For
This is not a beekeeping 101 course; ideal candidates will be able to demonstrate some degree of knowledge, but hands-on experience isn’t necessary. We’re a brand-new program so we need people with a sense of humor, patience, and a willingness to help us find ways to improve as we go!

Benefits
In addition to the valuable hands-on training using provided equipment, we may be able to provide starter bee colonies to apprentices who successfully complete the whole program, to start their own hives next year. Students will get a portion of the honey harvest - but be aware that first-year hives sometimes produce little or no harvestable honey. This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone who’s interested in getting started managing their own bees and giving back to the larger community.

How to Apply
Please respond to bigappleapiary@gmail.com no later than March 21st with an email telling us about yourself and your interest in the apprenticeship. We will be reviewing applications as they are received. No resume necessary, creative applications encouraged.

We encourage teams of two to three to apply together. Those who do not apply in teams will be paired with other selected applicants. Youth, members of under-served communities, and people from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Applicants who will be available during the work week, or with an interest in queen breeding and genetics will be given special consideration.

You could spend your time like this!

Well, this is probably a bit more accurate.

Or this.

Or this.  Bees errywhere.
Oh.
Yes.

THIS COULD BE YOU!

Urban Hive Moving: Hatch Edition

As mentioned in the last article on urban hive moving, some of us in the city are forced to keep bees in locations that would cause our forebears to do a spit-take.

You have your bees WHERE!?

Our urban community is uniquely creative when it comes to hive placement, and places the importance of keeping bees far above the relative convenience of doing so. I've seen urban apiaries that can only be accessed by climbing a 20 foot ladder leading up to unwalled, open air attic with roof access through a double paned window barely large enough to fit a hive through, let alone a person.

Getting bees in to these locations is hard enough, often requiring the hive to be brought through the access point piece by piece, but what about getting them back out? Once the bees have made themselves at home, you can't really remove the hive piecemeal... or can you?

In fact, this is exactly what is done to move hives out of a limited-access location. Split the hive(s) up into manageable pieces, and they are much easier to move. Obviously, this has its downsides and limitations. In order to divide a colony into manageable bits, it has to be warm enough outside to open and manipulate the bees without chilling the brood or breaking up a winter cluster. On top of that, splitting a hive means you'll have to have enough small (4-5 frame) nuc boxes to split the hives into. Cardboard and plastic nuc boxes are both commonly available and cheap.

Itty-bitty hive, itty-bitty hatch, still a pain.

For the most part, moving a hive through a hatch follows most of the procedures outlined previously, but with a few modifications.

The first change is to compress the colony as much as possible the day before the move. The smaller the number of frames occupied by the bees, the smaller the number of nuc boxes needed to move them. The easiest way to do this is to evacuate and remove any and all honey supers, reducing the hive down to the broodnest. Attempting to compress the hive any further or for any length of time risks triggering swarm preparations, particularly in spring or summer.

Once the hive has been compressed down to the broodnest, it can be split into nucs. This should be done in the evening, after most of the foragers have returned home, and with heavy smoke to limit the number of flying bees. Ideally, the arrangement and orientation of the brood frames should be maintained as much as possible. The entrances of the nucs should be sealed and ventilation provided so that the bees can get plenty of air. Most of the cheap cardboard/plastic nucs are perfect for this purpose, as they have pluggable entrances and plenty of ventilation.  Make sure to carefully secure the lid and entrances of the nucs to prevent any escapes.

After the hive has been divided into small, discrete pieces, it can be easily carried down a hatch, while making sure to keep them level. When moved to the new location, the nucs can be recombined and treated as any other newly moved hive.

Urban Hive Moving

Moving beehives is one of those things best avoided, but sometimes it just has to be done. Choosing an apiary site is an imperfect science at best and 'perfect' locations are about as common as henteeth. Pretty much every site is a compromise in some respect and this is particularly true in the city. Beekeepers in the city don't have a lot of space, so we often have to take what we can get. People change as well; beekeeping is not for everyone and sometimes the only way to find out is to try it. If you decide it isn't for you, you're going to have move your hives one way or another.

Bees? In MY elevator?
It's more likely than you think!
Moving a donated hive to the Brooklyn Grange last week.

Accepting these apiary compromises means that we, as urban beekeepers, also have to accept that we might someday have to move our bees, either because we want to or because we must. With this in mind I generally recommend that people do not put bees on property they rent.

Situations change, often when it is least convenient.

Personally, I prefer to (and do) keep my bees in permanent, established community gardens and on top of buildings owned by people I know and trust. Still, if it was a choice between no bees and keeping them somewhere potentially inconvenient, I know what I would do.

So say that you have a hive and you need to move it. How do you do it? It depends on a few factors. What's the weather like? How far are you moving them?

Conventional wisdom says that you can move a hive two feet or two miles. Anything more than two feet or less than two miles and the foragers get confused and try to return to the original location they oriented to. Obviously this is a problem as there isn't a hive in that location any more. You end up losing most of your foragers, or about a third of your hive population. So what do you do if you need to move your hives more than two feet (which is probable) and less than two miles (which is likely)?

Beehacks. (Beehacks?) More on that later.

This guide will assume that you have easy access to both hive sites, either because they are ground level, or easily accessible via stairs or elevator. I'll be writing a follow-up for locations featuring roof hatches or otherwise limited access.

The first thing you'll need to do is prep the new apiary site and gather the equipment you'll need. You should never move bees unless their new location is completely set up and ready to go, so that you can just set them down, open them up and let them be for a while. Moving can be traumatic, so it's best to give them time to adjust without prodding them any more than is strictly necessary.

In terms of required equipment, the list is short: A vehicle large enough to carry the hives you'll be moving, one or two strong ratchet straps, window screening material, some branches or bundles of grass (*hint, hint*) and a staple gun or strong duct tape (I use Gorilla brand.) You'll want some extra hands as well. Optionally, bring your bee suit, your smoker, sugar to feed with, a hand truck, or a hive lifter.

Once you've gathered your equipment, and gotten your new site prepared, you'll have to schedule a time to move the hives. In the winter, when it is too cold for the bees to fly, any time is acceptable. If it warm enough that the bees are flying (over 50F), you'll want to wait until the foragers are all back home for the evening so that you don't lose your field force.

If you crack open the hive first, they will come to see what has happened.
Can you spot the extended stingers?
Seal them up first, curiosity be damned.

Once the bees are all in the hive, cut a section of window screening large enough to seal the entire entrance of the hive. If your inner cover has a notch as an upper entrance like the one from Brushy Mountain, you'll want to plug it up so that the bees can't escape. If it's warm out, you'll need to smoke the bees so they don't come flying out at you when you open the inner cover.

I only squashed one bee.  I consider it a victory.  Once you start stapling, they'll come to investigate, so make sure that you have the mesh placed snugly and are holding it in place.  Extra hands help.

Take the screen and staple or tape it over the entrance so that it is completely sealed around the edges. The screening will keep the bees in, but allow some air circulation. If you have a screened bottom board, take out the sticky board so that they'll have plenty of air.

Ventilation and curiosity.

With the hive sealed, you can secure it. Run the ratchet straps around the entire hive and cinch them down snugly, but not so tight that you tear into the wood. I like to use two ratchet straps, one front to back and the other left to right, so that they cross at the top and bottom. It's probably overkill, but better safe than sorry.  Make sure that you seal up the hive before you ratchet them down.  They don't like the vibrations and will come out to investigate.

First sting of the year!

Now that the hive is sealed and secured, it is ready to move. If you are carrying it by hand, pick it up from the front and back and be careful to keep it as vertical as possible so that the frames don't come loose. If you have a hand truck, make sure that you set it so that the back of the hive is against the metal frame. If you put the hive in sideways, the frames will tilt, break apart, squash bees, and possibly do some serious damage. If you have a hive carrier, follow the instructions, but remember to keep the hive level.

Notice how the hive is only being leaned back, in line with the frames so that they don't shift.

Load the hive into your transportation and take it to the new location. Unload it just as you loaded it, slowly and keeping it level. Set the hive where you want it and remove the ratchet straps.

Home sweet home at the Brooklyn Grange.

If you've moved the hive more than a couple of miles, you can open the hive and only lose a small percentage of foragers. The vast majority of the bees will take a short flight, realize that nothing around them looks remotely familiar, and reorient to the new location. You don't have to worry about any new foragers, since they'll orient to the new location as soon as they're ready to start flying.

But what if you've moved the hive close enough to the original location that the foraging areas overlap? The foragers will take their first flight, spot a landmark they previously identified in relation to their old hivesite and use it as a guide to fly directly back home. When they get there, they'll find nothing and mill around, confused and possibly cranky, until it starts to get dark. At that point, they'll start looking for the closest hive to take shelter in. Chances are, it won't be yours and you'll end up losing up to a third of your population.

If you don't want that to happen, there are a couple tricks (BEEHACKS!) that you can use to trigger reorientation behavior in older foragers.

The simplest is to just keep the hive sealed in for a couple days so that the bees can't fly. Make sure that the hive has plenty of ventilation and food. Combined with the vibrations and shaking from the actual move, and many of the bees will pay extra attention to where they are and trigger reorientation. According to Michael Bush, author of The Practical Beekeeper, about 72 hours of confinement is the sweet spot. Any shorter and fewer bees will reorient; any longer and the number will plateau.

You can also obstruct the entrance of the hive. When bees leave the hive, they leave on autopilot. They fly out with not a care in the world and only use landmarks for orientation on their RETURN trip. By obstructing the entrance with something the bees have to fly or crawl around in order to exit the hive, you force them to pay attention and register that something has changed. This change in the hive entrance will trigger reorientation to the new location. Loosely stuffing the entrance with grass so that the bees have to carry it aside works well. So does leaning some twiggy branches in front of the hive and over the entrance. You want to use something dense enough that all the bees will have to fly close through, but not something so thick that the entrance is blocked. After a couple a days, you can remove the branches, or let the bees remove the grass.

After you've moved them, you'll want to give them a couple days (at least a week) to recuperate and adjust. In your first post-move inspection, pay extra attention to any damage caused by the move, and make sure that the queen is laying (if it is seasonable for her to do so.) Queens tend to be a bit fragile, and the stress of moving can sometimes cause bees to ball, or kill, her.

I'll be writing a follow-up article outlining how to move hives that cannot be moved in one piece because they are too heavy or because they are too large to fit through the entrance to the apiary (roof hatches), so check back later this week!

TL;DR
1.) Prep new site and equipment.
2.) Seal up hive entrances with mesh and secure with hive bodies with ratchet straps.
3.) Move hive vertically to new location.
4a.) If moved over two miles, let them loose.
4b.) If less than two miles, keep sealed for 2-3 days, and obstruct but do not block entrance to trigger reorientation.
5.) ???
6.) Profit.

If you want to read about the hive moved in the pictures, check out this blog post at the Brooklyn Grange: http://www.brooklyngrangefarm.com/2012/02/10/got-us-a-donated-hive-today/

Pesticide Sprays: Keep Your Hive Alive

*UPDATE*  Due to the rain, spraying has been delayed until tonight (August 4th) in Brooklyn and Queens, and August 8th in Rockaway!

"Tonight's spraying in Queens and Brooklyn has been postponed until tomorrow night due to weather. Tomorrow night's originally scheduled spraying in Queens is now scheduled for August 8, weather permitting."

A helpful local beekeeper (Thanks, Dennis) sent me this notice from the NYC Department of Health:

The Health Department Will Spray Pesticide to Reduce Adult Mosquito Populations

Spraying scheduled for parts of Brooklyn and Queens to help prevent West Nile Virus

August 1, 2011 - To reduce mosquito activity and the risk of West Nile Virus, the Health Department will spray pesticide from trucks in parts of Pomonok and Holliswood in Queens, and parts of Greenwood Heights, Park Slope and Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn, on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 between the hours of 8:15 p.m. and 6 a.m. the following morning, weather permitting. In case of bad weather, application will be delayed until Thursday, August 4, during the same hours.

Ground-based spraying will occur in Far Rockaway on Thursday, August 4 between the hours of 8:15 p.m. and 6 a.m. the following morning, weather permitting. In case of bad weather, application will be delayed until Monday, August 8, during the same hours. Recently, the Health Department received several mosquito nuisance complaints from the neighborhoods of Arverne, Somerville, Edgemere, Bayswater; Edgemere Park and Dubos Point Wildlife Sanctuary. Some mosquito breeding sites in these areas are inaccessible. The Health Department believes that the proposed nuisance ground application of adulticide will reduce the population of nuisance mosquitoes.

For these sprayings, the Health Department will use a very low concentration of Anvil 10 + 10, a synthetic pesticide. The use of pesticides in New York City is conducted in accordance with guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). A complete Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is available at www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/wnv/feis.shtml.

Maps of the affected areas:

August 8 8:15PM - 6:00AM

Spraying in Queens • Neighborhoods: Arverne/Somerville, Edgemere, Bayswater and Edgemere Park and Landfill • Zip codes: 11691 and 11692 • Pesticide to be used: Anvil 10+10

August 8

8:15PM - 6:00AM

Spraying in Queens

• • Neighborhoods: Arverne/Somerville, Edgemere, Bayswater and Edgemere Park and Landfill
• • Zip codes: 11691 and 11692
• • Pesticide to be used: Anvil 10+10 

August 4 8:15PM - 6:00AM

Spraying in Brooklyn • Neighborhoods: Greenwood Heights • Zip codes: 11215, 11218, 11219, 11225, 11226, 11232 and 11238 • Pesticide to be used: Anvil 10+10

August 4

8:15PM - 6:00AM

Spraying in Brooklyn

• • Neighborhoods: Greenwood Heights
• • Zip codes: 11215, 11218, 11219, 11225, 11226, 11232 and 11238
• • Pesticide to be used: Anvil 10+10 

August 4 8:15PM - 6:00AM

Spraying in Queens • Neighborhoods: Parts of Pomonok, Queensboro Hill, Kissena Park, Murray Hill, Fresh Meadows, Flushing Cemetery and St Mary's Cemetery • Zip codes: 11355, 11358, 11364, 11365, 11366, 11423 and 11427 • Pesticide to be used: Anvil 10+10

August 4

8:15PM - 6:00AM

Spraying in Queens

• • Neighborhoods: Parts of Pomonok, Queensboro Hill, Kissena Park, Murray Hill, Fresh Meadows, Flushing Cemetery and St Mary's Cemetery
• • Zip codes: 11355, 11358, 11364, 11365, 11366, 11423 and 11427
• • Pesticide to be used: Anvil 10+10 

So what should you do?

Well, there are a couple things to take in to consideration. Firstly, the spraying is being done by ground level trucks and at night in a relatively small number of neighborhoods, so unless you live in one of the areas highlighted in the maps above and your hives are in the front yard and populated with vampire bees, the little buggers probably will not be sprayed directly. Your bees won’t be flying at night, so your foragers won’t be directly in the line of fire.

HOWEVER, that does not mean you shouldn’t take basic precautions to minimize exposure through overspray or drift. Jim at NYC Beekeeping suggests setting up a tent of sorts to protect the front and sides of the hive from any spray. An explanation of his idea can be found HERE, and a diagram of his suggested set-up is HERE.

Many of you will not have the time or materials to set up a tent on such short notice. Well babies, don't you panic. By the light of the night when it all seems alright, I’ll suggest some other methods to minimize exposure.

The lows for the next two nights are 68 and 70, respectively. Because we are lucky enough to have a break in the heatwave and because the active sprays are being done at night, I suggest simply closing up the entrance to the hive with wire mesh or screen in the evening. You can then loosely drape the front of the hive with a wet, breathable cloth. Burlap would be best, but if you don’t have that, get creative. An old bed sheet would probably do the trick. The screen will prevent any bees from flying, and the damp cloth will both prevent spray from getting in (or on) the hive and help keep it cool.

Make sure you remove both the screen and the cloth in the morning, otherwise your bees won’t be able to keep the hive cool in the heat of the day.

To minimize the exposure of your field force or foraging bees, you should gorge the hive with sugar syrup. You all have hive feeders, and now is the time to use them. By giving the bees an internal supply of food, you will curb the numbers of bees leaving the hive, and accordingly minimize the number of bees exposed to residual pesticides.

The authors of The Beekeepers Handbook, Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitable, suggest pouring a quart of sugar syrup directly on top of the frames twice a day for two to three days after a spray to limit foraging. I think that the combination of a hive top feeder and a couple of sprays of sugar water in and on the front of the hive should be sufficiently distracting. If you’ve been seeing a lot of pollen come in, you might consider feeding a pollen supplement as well, to discourage them from bringing in contaminated pollen.

The short version:
1.) In the EVENING BEFORE THE SPRAY: Close up your hives with screen mesh blocking the entrance and a wet, breathable cloth draped over the front of your hive. This will prevent direct exposure of the bees to the pesticide, and help prevent the hive from getting covered with chemicals.
2.) In the MORNING AFTER THE SPRAY: Open the hive back up by removing the cloth and screen. This prevents your hive from overheating.
3.) GORGE YOUR HIVES with artificial feed (sugar syrup and pollen supplement) before and for several days AFTER the spray. This minimizes (but does not eliminate) the number of bees actively foraging and being exposed to residual pesticides.

Good luck, kiddos!

Surprise! You're a Beekeeper. Part II

Tim asked me to share stories on the blog about things I didn’t expect to be true when I started out this spring as a fledgeling beekeeper. Read Part I here. Part II follows.

You will make friends
As Tim’s most recent posts demonstrate, the beekeeping community is close-knit.  I’ve been interested in urban food system reform (especially at the community level) for a while now, and it’s how I make my living, but before getting started as a beekeeper I had no meaningful way to add value to community gardens besides showing up and asking to be taught how to weed properly.

Since starting out as a beekeeper I've gotten to know people in my own community in a way I couldn’t have before. I’m being asked to do rotations at gardens in different parts of Brooklyn by super-established beekeepers so that the gardens can have more pollinator-action and teaching moments. I’ve met Meg Paska, the Brooklyn Homesteader, Annie Novak, founder of Eagle Street Farm, Chase Emmons of the Brooklyn Grange, and countless others. And I can show up to farmers markets anywhere and strike up conversations with vendors about their wares.

80 years of beekeeping experience.
Photo by Kirk Anderson

I’ve met other fellow bee geeks across the country. When folks come to town from the west coast, they want to see what’s going on here. So two weeks ago we had a visit from Kirk Anderson of Backwards Beekeepers. Earlier this year I ran a campaign on CCD through my employer and founded a relationship with an amazing beekeeper in Chicago who uses beekeeping as an urban rehabilitation tool. It’s even brought me closer to my aunt and uncle in rural Pennsylvania, who are pretty active old-school homesteaders who keep to themselves but raise cattle, harvest fruit trees, make preserves, and keep bees.

People like bees, they just don't know it yet.
Photo by Kirk Anderson

On a global level, I have a friend in Nigeria who’s building up the local economy through apiculture. And I’ve reconnected with a college friend who’s doing agroforestry and apiculture in Cambodia through the Peace Corps.

My original interest in this hobby was to geek out as a lifelong bug lover and to experience the inner workings of a eusocial society firsthand. But I’ve come to see that there’s much more to be gained in my own social life from beekeeping and should you too choose to start up a few hives, I’m certain that you’ll find the same to be true.

Buglover.jpg
Photo by Theadora Tolkin

Package Installation 101: The Hivening

For many, hiving a package is their first real solo experience working with bees.

And it’s scary.

Don’t worry.

You can admit it.

You’re in a safe place here.

I mean, I was terrified the first time I installed a package! I was wearing thick canvas gloves, a full bee suit, and still I almost dropped the package as soon as the first bee landed on my arm. The entire time, I was holding the thing at arms length (so quite far away) and thinking to myself, “Are you fucking mental, Tim? The hell have you gotten yourself in to? SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! BEES!”

At least I didn’t pee myself, right?

Myself, my apprentice Emily, and 6 pounds of bees!

ANYWAYS… the real important thing to remember is that installing a package is an experience like no other. Bees in a package have been cooped up in there for at least a couple of days, even up to a week, with no chance to fly, a queen that they’ve never met before, and nothing to eat or drink but a can of high fructose corn syrup.

They’re essentially an artificial swarm and react as such. The bees are ready for you to introduce them to their new home. They’re desperate for the chance to start their work; building comb, raising brood, gathering food, and storing it all away to prepare for the long cold winter to come. You’re their hero, (wo)man!

Before you start throwin’ around the bees, you should make sure that your hive is set up properly:

1 - Bottom board
1 - Entrance reducer
1 - Hive body with all 10 frames
1 - Inner cover
1 - Top/bucket/quad feeder
1 - Outer cover

You'll also need enough 1:1 sugar syrup to fill the feeder, a pollen patty or other protein supplement, your trusty hive tool, a veil/jacket (better safe than sorry), a bee brush, a flat-top thumbtack, and a flat card of some sort. A used metrocard works perfectly.

Hives set up, and everything else ready to go.

Once you’ve gotten everything set up and ready to go, here is a step by step guide to what you’re going do. Don’t panic if the directions you’ve found elsewhere vary from mine. There is a huge amount of variability when it comes hiving packages. They all work fine. This is just my personal favourite way.

1.) Spray the mesh sides of the package with sugar syrup. This both calms the bees and distracts them by giving them something to eat. They're hungry.

A spray bottle with 1:1 sugar syrup mixed with Honey-B-Healthy, an essential oil mix.  This stuff serves as both food and  a calming agent, as it is strongly scented to help cover up any alarm pheromones released during the hiving process.

Freshly sprayed package.  All the bees are running over the mesh sides trying to suck up as much of the syrup as possible.  So good!

2.) As they're gorging on the syrup, open the empty hive, remove the cover and feeder and take out 3 or 4 frames on one side, and make a small gap between the middle (5th and 6th) frames. Put the entrance reducer in.

Frames removed to make space for the bees.  I haven't made the gap between the 5th and 6th frames yet.

3.) Pry off the small wooden cover on top of the package and, using your hive tool, gently pry up and lift out the can of syrup within the package. Use the thumbtack to make sure that the queen cage attached to the plastic strap doesn't fall into the package. If it seems stuck, rock it gently from side to side as you pull it up.

Poppin' the top.

Pulling out the feeder can.  The white stuff stuck to it is wax that the bees had started to attach to the metal.  Coop a package up too long and they'll start to build comb!

4.) Gently remove the queen cage and shake off any hanger-ons into the hive. Gently set the wooden lid back on top of the hole where the can was, and look inside the queen cage to make sure that she and her attendants are healthy.

Here queeny, queeny, queeny.

See her?  Bottom left, long, fat, and light brown.

5.) Using the corner of your hive tool, remove the cork from the end of the queen cage that has the mass of white candy/fondant in it. If you have a small nail handy, you can gently poke a SMALL hole most of the way through the candy to make the queen release easier. Using the thumbtack, attach the card to the side of the cage so that if the card were laid flat, the cage would be laying on its long skinny side.

Attaching a small stiff card.  I had metal screen handy, so I used that.  A business or metro card would work as well.

Cork in.  The bee on my finger was CHEWING on me.  It's a funny sensation.  I probably spilled some sugar syrup on it earlier.

Cork out.
MAGIC!

6.) Hang the queen cage by the card you tacked on in the small gap you made earlier between the middle frames and gently push them together. Neither entrance of the queen cage should be blocked, and the side with the mesh should face the frame next to it.

Queen cage hung between the middle frames.

7.) Using your hive tool, start prying off the bottom and sides of one of the mesh walls of the package. If the bees get active, spray them with some more sugar water. When you're done, you should be able to lift away the mesh on three sides, like a screened door.

Emily opening the second package.

8.) Open the side, hold the package over the space in the hive that you created by removing the frames earlier, and give the package a good firm SHAKE. You won’t hurt them (bees are strong!), but avoid hitting the package on the sides of the hive. The bees should come out in one great blob and fall directly into the hive.

Shaking out the bees.  We may have missed the gap, but it doesn't really matter.  The bees will immediately start moving down into the hive.

9.) There will still be some bees in the package. Shake those remaining bees out directly on to the queen cage, vigorously.

Shaking some leftover bees from the first package right onto the queen cage.  PAY ATTENTION TO THE QUEEN, GUYS!

10.) Give the bees a couple minutes and slowly reinsert the missing frames as the bees spread out over the hive. Set the pollen patty on top of the reinserted frames and poke several holes in it with the corner of your hive tool to help the bees access it.

Reinserting the frames.

Putting on the pollen patty and pushing the bees out of the way so we can replace the feeder.

11.) Briskly brush any bees out of the way, put your feeder on (how you do this will vary according to what sort of feeder you have) and fill it with syrup. Remove any bees that have flown into the feeder as you filled it, put on the outer cover and seal the hive.

Fill 'er up!

Kamikaze bees flying right into the syrup.  Lucky for them, I'm a trained lifeguard.

Ratchet straps prevent the hive from getting knocked over by the wind.  You should use them.

12.) Shake out any stragglers onto the front porch of the hive and leave the package to the side of the entrance so that any remaining bees can find their way in.

Hooray!  All done!

13.) Check yourself and any helpers for bees (they're curious!), take off your protective gear, and have a beer.

Meg Paska loves bees, and they love her.

They also like my head.

You've got bees! Mazel tov!

In a couple days (5-7ish, depend on your timing), you should do your first SHORT hive inspection to check if the queen has been released.

If she is still in the cage, pull it out and observe any bees that come with it. Are they acting aggressive, running over the cage and biting at the mesh protecting the queen? If so, they may not have accepted the new queen yet and you should give them a couple more days to get accustomed to her scent. If the bees hanging on the cage are calm, sticking their tongues out and trying to swap food/pheromones with the attendant bees, they’ve accepted the new queen and you can release her by using the corner of your hive tool to gently pry out the cork on the non-candy end of the cage. Make sure you do this low over the hive so that you don’t drop her on the ground or force her to fly, and she should scurry right out.

Once she’s loose, close the hive back up, fill up the feeder and leave them alone for at least another week or two. Fill the feeder with fresh sugar syrup whenever it gets low, but keep any other interactions to a minimum. This is a busy time for a new colony as they are scrambling to build comb and raise enough bees to replace the old and dying ones that came in the package.

When you check back on them in two weeks, you should see a large amount of capped brood with a solid laying pattern and plenty of freshly drawn comb starting to be filled with gathered pollen and nectar.

Bees!

The bees.

They are here.

Finally.

Nucs lined up after delivery at the Added Value Red Hook Farm.

It was a warm night, and the nucs were quite crowded, so there was a bit of bearding on the fronts of some of them.

On Wednesday night I took delivery of 11 nucleus colonies ("nucs", 4 or 5 frame mini-hives) for myself, Added Value, Brooklyn Homesteader, and others, trucked up overnight from Florida. It was quite an experience and since they were brought up under a screen with the entrances open, there were bees everywhere. (2 stings, left middle finger and right palm.)

Check out that spider.  BFFs forever?

I like nucs. The bees have already drawn out several frames of comb and stuffed it full of brood and stores, so they have a significant head start compared to a package installed on foundation. The queen has been laying for weeks with the colony, so there are no worries about her getting accepted like there are with package installations, and since they have developing brood, the chances of them absconding are practically nonexistent.

Friday afternoon nuc install at Added Value.  Hives are set up in the background and the two nucs for the farm on the right.

Suiting up a brave volunteer.

The downside is that nucs, as mini-colonies, sometimes have the same problems (diseases, pests, parasites) as full sized hives. Since most bee diseases are carried by the comb and brood, not adult bees, nucs are more likely than packages to get (or already BE) sick if not managed properly, so it is very important that you keep a close eye on them for any signs of distress or heavy mite load. While the presence of brood at all stages of development is seriously advantageous to a new colony, it does limit the treatment options available to the beekeeper.

Smoking the first nuc.

Pulling the first frame.

Jim Fischer, the instructor for the New York City Beekeeping Group, is an outspoken advocate of treating all packages coming into the city for varroa mites preemptively with oxalic acid, a seriously effective (but non-pharmaceutical) chemical treatment. Oxalic acid is great for treating packages because it doesn't harm adult bees, but it isn’t a good choice for nucs because it kills brood. Nucs need to be treated with a brood safe method, such as formic acid pads, sugar shakes, grease patties, or drone comb removal. I think packages are a better option and experience for a NEW beekeeper, but they are a great choice for anyone with enough field experience to spot problems and solve them effectively.

Transferring the loaded frame into the hive.

Shaking out the remaining bees clinging to the interior of the nuc.

The bees themselves seemed to be in good health and I installed two hives at Added Value on Friday, during open volunteer hours.

Installing a nuc is as easy as pie. The only thing that needs to be done is to transfer the full frames of brood and bees from the nuc boxes to the full sized 10 frame hives, filling the remaining space with drawn out comb or empty frames. As nucs are essentially small complete colonies, they must be treated as such. They should be smoked prior to opening, and the frames should be transferred quickly and carefully to minimize disruption and avoid losing bees or rolling (accidentally squashing) the queen.

Friendly bees!

Smoking the second nuc.

The transfer to the full sized hive is also a good time to take a quick look at the brood pattern, check for any signs of disease and try to spot the queen. I didn't see her this time, but the nucs were extremely crowded and the brood pattern looked solid with plenty of new eggs so I'm not too worried about it.

Inspecting the bees, comb, and brood pattern of the second nuc.

With the help of some (brave) volunteers from the farm (and one in particular who donned a veil and actually gave working the bees a try!), it was a quick and *almost* painless job. (1 sting, belly.)

Brave volunteer touching bees!

Whoops.  Note to self: pull pants up, pull suit down.

The bees were calm and happy to be flying free. I even saw a few with full pollen baskets already!

I'll be back there this weekend to give them their first real inspection.

All done!  Hooray!  Hives!  Bees!  Added Value!  Pollination!