# Newbie bee question



## RacerX (Mar 21, 2013)

I'm looking at getting a couple hives up and running this year. My grandfather had bees when I was a kid, and now its time for me to try it. I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject, but can't quite find a simple answer to a dumb question.

When purchasing a Nuc, what advantages are there to transferring the colony over to a nice setup versus just leaving them in the cardboard box as provided by the bee company?

A lady friend of mine gets her bees from 

https://www.goswm.com/go_htm/southwest_michigan_guide/michigan_agritourism/king_honey_bee_nucs/king_nuc_honey_bee_hive_prices.htm

And they claim their box setup will make it through a season. What am I missing? Obviously at some point the box is going to fail, but for just starting out and giving it a shot, what's the downside?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Your location would be nice to know. 
Any way a normally colony for Michigan and to make it thru the winter is 2 10 frame deeps. I have tried to over winter bees in a nuc here and I had no luck trying to do so.

 Al


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## RacerX (Mar 21, 2013)

alleyyooper said:


> Your location would be nice to know.
> Any way a normally colony for Michigan and to make it thru the winter is 2 10 frame deeps. I have tried to over winter bees in a nuc here and I had no luck trying to do so.
> 
> Al


Northern Michigan my neighbor, though I now live below the bridge 

Where did you get your bees from, and do you have any recommendations?


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

If the nuc is a decent nuc, it will swarm in a month or less. Five frames is not enough space for a hive all summer. If you are getting a package, the nuc box will last maybe 60 days before becoming crowded and swarming. As Al said, they need two full deeps to store enough supplies for winter.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

RacerX said:


> Northern Michigan my neighbor, though I now live below the bridge
> 
> Where did you get your bees from, and do you have any recommendations?



"you now live below a bridge?" Does that imply you are a "troll"? Are you trolling? LOL! That's supposed to be funny by the way!
Seriously,there are 5 frame nucs and 8 frame nucs.If you leave them in nucs you limit the size of the colony.If they are healthy bees they will want to swarm.Either way it's a loose/loose. They need about 20 deep frames to make it thru winter if they are healthy. If they are not you will never get that much production out of them. First year feed,feed,feed! Don't expect to harvest.Many people forget about the dry months of July/August and since there isn't much of a nectar flow the bees eat what they put up and can't recuperate enough to get thru winter.
Give them the room they need and give them the food they need and hope you still have bees in Feb to start feeding again.

Wade


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## RacerX (Mar 21, 2013)

LOL, I am a troll. But used to live in Iron Mountain.

Thanks for the information everyone. Just looking at Dadant now trying to figure out what exactly I need to buy to make this happen.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

For Michigan, one year in bee keeping.
2 deeps with 20 frames of real wax foundation 
2 honey supers, I like the shallows although I have some mediums with 18 frames of real wax foundation although I run mostly 8 frames.
bottom board, intercover and outer cover, 
Hive tool, a red devil paint scraper sold at hardware stores is cheaper and heaver than what is sold at bee supply companies.
I mostly these days use the 5 in 1 or 7 in 1 paint scraper tools over the hive tool.
That is what is needed for one year in Michigan. You will probably want more honey supers as time goes by.

Go to *sembabees.org* and watch the classified section for people selling Michigan Nucs and also package's. I have bought packages from Shawn before and they were heavy 3 pound packages that did so well I split them by the end of July.

 Al


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