Nuc Expansion

I did my first 2 nuc installs a couple weeks back. I was able to get 2 nucs from a local guy. Old Hive 2 never kicked into gear but since the bees are a grand experiment I decided to put them into a box off to the side and see if they ever try to build up when it gets warm or continue to struggle. Plus I didn't have the heart to kill off one of my first 2 queens. So one of the nucs is in Hive 2. The good thing is that they are on drawn comb so they don't have to expend the energy to make a bunch of wax. Instead I can super them and hopefully get some honey this year. Wish me a good nectar year with good foraging weather!

The other is in my brother and sister-in-law's back yard. He used to have big gardens with tomatoes and peppers and they canned really good Italian peppers. After a bunch of years he decided to put a garden in again. Th owner before them had bees and they seemed to do well there so since I didn't expand my electric fence in time it was good to have another place to put a hive.

Which goes into my planning. Man, I thought I did a good job of planning for this year, at least as far as equipment went. But once I started to get some bees coming in I realized I didn't do a very good job. The hive bodies I have started making, and have managed to squeak by on how many I will use this year, but I am also running low on frames and foundation. At my property I am only limited by how many hives I want to have, not the usual circumstance around here where you are limited in suburban yards by zoning restrictions. After having gone through a year and realizing how much I liked beekeeping I should have expanded my electric fence, ordered a bunch of bottom boards, inner and telescoping covers, frames, and foundation to get ready for this year. So now the electric fence is bigger. Now I will be able to go up to 10 or so hives. Not that I think I will expand that fast, but at least the fence will support it and that part of the future plans is taken care of.