We ordered a new NUC of bees to be picked up on March 23rd, so that means we have to get another hive setup and ready for the new girls to arrive. I ordered an assembled deep box, but it came unassembled. Uh oh. But I figured ‘How hard could it be? It’s 4 sides and not even a bottom or top. Surely I can do that.” And I did! A little glue, a few nails and voila! A new house for the bees. You have to paint any parts that are exposed to the elements, and since our other 3 deeps are white, we painted this one white to match.
We had setup our apiary to work with three hives with everything centered perfectly within the ara we setup…but, we tried not to be too OCD and just added the fourth to the far side on it’s own stand. I think it’ll work. And then if we get a 5th hive, it’ll go on the other far side 🙂
I also planted tome wildflower seeds about 15 ft in front of the hives, and organized/refilled their water troughs. They have a good water source from our stock tank (as you can see in the picture), but bees need something to stand on when they drink or they’ll drown, so I like having these troughs nearby with rocks at various levels so they can drink safely, regardless of the height of the water.
I also took the opportunity while I was over at the hives to pup open the top real quick and add a protein patty to each hive. The protein and sugar in the patty feeds the bees and gives them needed nutrients prior to the nectar flow (the spring flowers). Hoping that gets them nice and strong so they’re healthy and happy and make us lots of honey 🙂 We’re gonna need some rain tho…it’s really dry out there.
It was too windy for the girls to fly today, but a few of them came out to do short cleansing flights (aka: to go potty), and to enjoy a little sunshine on their front porch.
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