to all you Nuc sellers when do you close them up?

[Keith13]

Have a question that has bothered me for some time. For all you guys and gals out there that sell nucs, what time of day do you close them up and move them? I remember when I picked mine up in 07 I picked them up at 1000. The beek and I walked out into a field and closed them up and drove off with them to my place. I guess the question that has always bugged me is. By doing that did I cut my population of field bees roughly in half and set the nuc back as far as strength is concerned? Do you think it really affected them? So you know both nucs went on to produce over 75lbs of excess honey that year. Now that was a good year had it been a difficult year for the bees in general would the loss of population have affected them more? well it actually has turned into quite a few questions but I am curious to hear your opinions.

Keith

[riverrat]

its best to close up any hive after the bees are home. Which would be late evening about dark or early morning. I guess you could also include days when the weather is bad enough they wont  be flying. If you move a hive at 1000 hours you will lose bees wether it sets the hive back enough to notice is a subject for debate there is a lot of variables to that,

[Keith13]

OK then to all you nuc sellers out there do you wait until dark to close them up and sell them or do you just do it when you can?

Keith

[Michael Bach]

I bought two nucs this year and I picked them up 1/2 hour after dark.  My luck it was a warm evening and they were bearding heavily.  I had to screen them to bring all the bees I paid for home.

BTW.  Bees down like to be messed with after dark!

I placed them in my apiary about 22:30 and took the screening off a bit.

Mike

[Joelel]

Almost dark,all the workers are back. Blow a little smoke in the entrance and the ones that you can't get to run inside you brush them in a bucket and dump them in the top. That's the right way. If you just close them up in the middle of the day,you will leave out half or more of the workers and set the colony back.

[BjornBee]

Keith,

I close up my nucs as soon as the customer is done inspecting, and has seen what they are buying.

It would be nice to be able to have all the bees in the nuc. But my hours of operation and the ability of my customers to be here before dark in the morning, or after dark in the evening, which would be in the spring/summer before 6 am. and after 9 pm. is impossible. I know I can't work every evening till 10 or 11, and start again every day at 3 in the morning.

To get all the bees in the nuc, I would need to "prepackage" them by closing them up every morning, then have them sit until all the customers show up for that day's pickup. The customer would not see what they are getting till they get home.

I think most of my customers like the idea that they are inspecting the nucs the day of pickup. I get almost no calls of nucs, later to be found with no queen or problems. We catch that the day of pickup. It also is a time that the customer, many times new beekeepers, can ask questions and get some hands-on in the nuc yard.

As for lost bees....any left behind will assimilate into the next hive. The original nuc does not suffer, as they probably would of been packed way too full for any real time screened into a nuc box for a trip in the daytime heat. If the nuc is full of bees and has 2-4 frames of capped brood, they will double in size and population within the next 10 days. And any lost Field bees are of no concern. A really good nuc, even with the Field bees out of the nuc, should be full anyways. And those field bees are going to be dead within 10 days, making any assumption of lost honey crop from what a nuc does throughout the rest of the season, a moot point.

If you want ALL the bees from that nuc your buying....ask that they be "prepackaged" them, assuming all responsibility for what you find later after getting them home. And see if you can be there at 5 in the morning, or are willing to be there after 9 in the evening. I know that there may be some willing to do this at those times. But this seller is much happier NOT providing that service. I'm much happier with chatting and going through nucs during daytime hours and helping my customers, making a few left behind Field bees not worth worrying about.

I don't know of any nuc producer, except perhaps the small guy selling one day a week, that has all the nucs picked up after dark. I do know of some nuc producer who go out and close up the nucs every morning and has them "prepackaged" for customers. I sell lots of queens to those beekeepers later who find no queen in the nucs... ;)

I do suggest customers pickup mornings or evening. But that is so it does not blow the main part of the day for my schedule. Which usually involves getting the next days nucs ready. But standing there closing up nucs after dark is not going to happen.  ;)