Boyds Honey Bees

Once the bees are locked into their nuc, be sure to keep them cool, as they may over heat.  Keep them shaded and well ventilated.

After you take your bees home, please transfer* them into their permanent hive body as soon as possible.  

Feed them all the sugar syrup they will eat for at least 2 weeks while they locate sources of nectar.

Allow the bees to relax a few days before inspecting the hive as they will need time to adjust. The queen may stop laying for a while, wait a week and then check the hive for eggs. 

Be careful when handling foundationless frames.  They must be held vertical.  If you tilt/lean them sideways, the comb will break out.  If that happens, carefully pick it up and place it back in the frame, using rubber bands, or wrap string or twine around the frame to hold it in place and the bees will reattach it over time.

* Bee careful.  It is possible for the queen to be injured, killed or lost when you move the frames of the nuc into a permanent box or anytime you inspect your colony. 

Some reasons bees may become defensive.

• Large Colonies. Crowded bees. The stronger the hive, the more defensive they will become.
• As summer progresses, bees know when winter is getting closer, so they guard their stores more.
• Increased varroa mite population which can aggravate and stress colonies.
• Nectar dearth leaves more bees in the hive.
• Robbing attempts from other hives.
• Other predators, (skunks, lizards, etc....)
• A queenless colony will be more defensive.
• Heat and humidity makes the bees more uncomfortable.
• Genetics.  Sometimes while open mating, the queen finds a drone that has an attitude, and it rubs off on their offspring.