Backyard Apiary

First Two Hives in the Apiary

The nucs I ordered from The Carolina Bee Company are now happily in their new home. There was a little bit of confusion with my order, but in the end it was handled very well and I would definitely do business with them in the future.

My bees are Minnesota Hygienic and very strong. One of the queens is marked (green) and the other one must be a ninja because she couldn’t be found to mark. Even with the foragers out collecting pollen, the medium frames were full There were clear signs that she was there and laying. Since Monica couldn’t get the queen marked, I was given six frames, instead of five. I modified two hive bodies with standard window screen stapled to the bottoms. This ensured good ventilation without giving any of the bees the opportunity of riding up front with me.

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I received confirmation that this spring I will be the proud recipient of two Nucs on medium frames. My hives will consist entirely of 8 frame mediums. There are many benefits (lighter, interchangable parts) to this approach and only one drawback (cost). To get the same amount of comb area as a standard hive, an all medium hive costs about 30% more. To quote some one from Beemaster Forum, “the money spent on mediums should be cheaper than back surgery [from lifting deeps]“.

I am still not entirely sure if I will purchase mediums or build my own. There are many free plans for hives and my only limiting factors are lack of time and lack of power tools.

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