Free bees!

I can’t think of a more attention-grabbing headline to introduce readers of Farm and Dairy to its new weekly column, Amazzzing Bees. My goal in writing this column is to inform, educate and entertain readers about all aspects of beekeeping, bee biology, beekeeping practices, flowering plants and seasonal challenges for the backyard beekeeper as well as the commercial sideliner. I don’t consider myself an expert on all things bees, but I have been a beekeeper for over 15 years, own and manage over 200 hives and am currently an Ohio State County Apiary inspector, serving for over 10 years.

Since this is the start of writing this column, it makes sense to write about how you start or acquire your first bees.

Starting with a package

Most new beekeepers will start with what’s called a package of bees. A package of bees will range in cost from about $120 to $140. A package is a small wooden-type box with screen sides that can be shipped in the mail. The package usually contains 3 pounds of bees or roughly 8,000 to 10,000 bees, with a caged queen.

The queen is caged to protect her in transit and also to make sure the other bees in the package do not kill her because 99% of the time, the bees in that package are not related to the queen. The queen is newly mated and is usually not a proven layer. This means she could be a dud or have other defects not apparent until she starts to lay. The bees do not recognize her yet as their queen and would kill her if she was released too early into that box.

If your queen is released from her cage in two to three days and all goes well, it will be an additional 21 days before your first new bees emerge. So, it will be a total of at least 25 to 30 days until your population starts to increase.

The package also contains a metal can about the size of a soup can, filled with syrup or sugar water to keep the bees in the box hydrated and fed. The bees will also feed the queen with this syrup in transit and keep her warm by closely clustering around the queen, which is in a screen cage suspended from the top. The cage is the size of a small pack of gum and will be put into your new hive once it has arrived.

After the bees get used to the queen’s pheromones in a few days, it’s safe to release the queen. There are signs that the bees are more accepting of the queen. They are still clustering around the cage, and they are not biting at the screen and can be gently brushed off the cage. If your new queen dies or is not mated correctly, a new queen can be purchased for about $25 to $30.

Starting with a nuc

The second method of starting your apiary is purchasing a nuc, which is short for nucleus hive. It typically consists of five frames of bees in a corrugated or wooden box with honey, brood, workers and a mated queen already laying. The cost of a nuc is typically $160 to $200.

The big advantage of a nuc over a package is that you have a mini hive that will typically double in size and become 10 frames in about a month. Remember, the package after a month is just starting to produce its first emerged bees.

Nucs are usually either from overwinter stock or could be made by the seller with three frames of brood and bees with a newly mated queen from this year, but she is proven and already laying. You should see new or open brood larvae and see eggs on the frames in a healthy nuc that proves the queen is laying. The capped brood frame shows a good, tight pattern with very few skips, and the pearly white larvae are all the same age in the pattern.

Nucs are the fastest way of starting a hive because a frame of capped brood is roughly the equivalent of another 3,000 bees ready to emerge in less than 12 days. The exponential growth of a nuc is huge and will outperform a package of bees because it is three to four weeks ahead of the package with more resources available.

Starting with free bees

The last way to start a hive is the freebies version. If you’re lucky enough for you or your neighbor to find a swarm of bees, you can simply grab a box and shake them in if they’re close enough to access.

Bee swarms can be as small as your hand and as large as a basketball, with as many as 8 to 10 pounds of bees in some of the largest swarms. The queen almost certainly is somewhere in the swarm.

If you have an empty hive available, you could shake the bees into the box. If the queen is in the box, some bees will go to the entrance on top of the box if the lid is off and start fanning their pheromones to the other bees, advertising that the queen is there. Some bees may fly back to the original spot but will return in 5 to 10 minutes once they realize the queen is in your box.

If you’re fortunate to have a beekeeper friend with a drawn comb or honey, that will help the new bees establish their home quickly. The new swarm is in wax-producing mode and will quickly draw out foundation for their new home so they have a place to store nectar and pollen and have a comb for the queen to start laying eggs.

Everyone loves swarms, unless they’re your bees that swarmed. So there you have it. Spend $140 on a package of bees or $200 on a nuc, or hope to find and attract a swarm of free bees. Next week, we’ll explore the most effective way to locate, track and trap your freebies.