2 nucs of carni's

[CTbeeman]

I am getting 2 nucs of carni's for my first year of beekeeping :-D and I was wondering what I should have on hand when I get them? Pollen sub, medication, other supers, etc. 
 
Please give me some advice on what I should have on hand when I get them to the bee yard. :?

[Brian D. Bray]

I am getting 2 nucs of carni's for my first year of beekeeping :-D and I was wondering what I should have on hand when I get them? Pollen sub, medication, other supers, etc. 
 
Please give me some advice on what I should have on hand when I get them to the bee yard. :?

Medication, maybe some Honey-B-Healthy.  Outside of your protective gear and mqnipulation equipment all you need is the boxes with frames, tops and bottoms, and a place to put them.  Buy about 25 pounds of sugar per nuc for feeding and they will be going gang busters in a month.  But I do not like to feed any more than I have to--I was taught that survival was up to the bees and are met to work for what they get.  Feeding is only an emergency measure to save a hive or 2.  These days, with the need for the bees and varroa to achieve a mutual survival scenerio I let the bees go and do the Darwin thing--survival of the fitest.

[Michael Bush]

>I am getting 2 nucs of carni's for my first year of beekeeping grin and I was wondering what I should have on hand when I get them? Pollen sub, medication, other supers, etc. 

Equipment, of course, meaning a top, bottom boxes and frames for each.  Some method to feed them for the first couple of weeks or so and sugar to make syrup to feed them.  I wouldn't get any medication.  I would plan to monitor the varroa mites some way.  Either a Screened Bottom Board (SBB) with a tray or plan to do a sugar roll or uncap some drone brood or all three.  If the Varroa get too high (like more than 50 mites in 24 hours on the tray or more than ten or fifteen mites in a sugar roll of a cup full of bees or two or three mites on every drone pupae) then have a plan to do something.  Either powdered sugar or oxalic acid would be my choice.  I just do small cell for the mites, but, in my experience, you have to do something other than just leave them on large cell foundation with no treatments or they will die in about two years, more or less.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#varroa

[Pond Creek Farm]

How is it that the Nucs can be regressed to a natural sized cell?  I, too, am looking to purchase two nucs this spring (one Italian and one Minnesota Hygenic) if things work out the way I hope.  Who knows, I may also pick up a couple packages from the local hardware store. To establish these as natural cell, I am assuming that we would need a SBB for each, hive bodies of our preferred depth and frame count, and then I am blank.  Do we put in frames with thin starter stips with no imprinted cell size?  Do we put in popsicle stick in the grooved top or, do we use small cell plastic or wax foundation in full sheets or starter strips? 

I am also assuming we should feed syrup until they stop wanting it and nectar flows start in earnest. 

Should we expect honey from nucs started this spring?  What about packaged bees? 

Brian

[Cindi]

Brian, I am going to comment on one part of your post, that be, to expect honey from a nuc or package of bees during the first year.

Number one, if you get ANY honey, consider that a super duper bonus.  Go into your first year of keeping bees with the train of thought that you are not going to get any honey.  Plain and simple.  If you get some honey (and yes of course, you must take a little for yourselves, just for the wonderfulness of getting some to taste and have in your home), then consider that a total bonus.  You must take a little bit for you and yours, just as a reward for working with the bees, and getting that taste of what will come in the next year.

Remember, this is only my opinion, you will hear others chime in that may say differently.  But this is what I believe and I stick to it.

The first year with a group of bees, be it package or nuc, is in my mind the year of building up.  It is the year that you will learn alot about your bees, you will delve into their homes, get to know them, they will not get to know you (remember that, you are an invader, they will not thank you ever for opening up their home, hee, hee).  This is the year that the bees will build up to strong numbers for the wintertime.  Strong colonies going into winter should be your goal.  The stronger a colony the better they can overwinter.  They can keep their cluster warm and be able to move around to get to the food that you will have left for them to eat over the wintertime.

Honey is the best food for bees.  Allow the bees to keep enough honey to overwinter, you will discover as you go along, through learning, how much honey a colony should be left with for wintertime.  If they have an overabundance of honey, then that can be yours.  But, don't expect it....they will need lots of stores to keep them happy and fed well over the wintertime.

Take good care of your bees this year, they will take good care of you next year, that will be your honey year with the bees from the first season.  And you will be pleased with the next year's bounty, if the bees have been looked after well in their first year of building up.  Good luck.....you will enjoy and love this world that you have entered into, you will become very addicted and definitely under the "spell of the honeybee", beautiful day, love our life we live.  Cindi