New nucs combined

My new bees.  3 pound package on left and two 5-frame nucs

I drove up to near Palo Alto yesterday to pick up my bees from Beekeeper Mike; two nucs and a package.  Mike turned out to be as unusual, if not more so, in person as he had on the phone.  I did get some helpful advice from his helper, Aden.
I gathered all my supplies: newly constructed double screen boards, homemade honey-b-healthy in sprayer, water in sprayer, frame-holder, small jars with lids, hive tool, bee brush and camera.  Carried the nucs down to the apiary and got to work on the new hive .
I opened the hive, took off the super and carefully inspected frames in the top box for the queen; the queen will often bee in the top box in the spring.  I didn't find her there so I took off the top box.  This box would be used to hold the five frames from the nuc, so I took out frames from the sides that had no drawn comb and shifted the others leaving space in the middle.  There were drone cells in the brace comb between top and bottom frames and some larvae fell out, attracting workers.

Then I searched for the queen in the bottom box.  I noted that there was no comb on the drone frame and I took out the plastic frame I had previously moved to the side.  It had some capped honey, which someone will get to eat.  I put in one of the frames I had removed from the top box.  I found the queen on the first round of searching and put her into the jar.  A couple of workers got in as well but I was able to get them out.

 

Trust me, she's in there

 The next step was to put the frames from the nucs into the box.  First I had to put on the double screen board on, but before doing that, I wanted to shake the bees off the frames and into the bottom box.  I did so and misted the remaining bees with honey-b-healthy (hbh).  The double screen board was then put on top of the bottom box, being careful that the door was oriented properly.

I transferred the frame from the nuc into the middle of the top box, misting the bees with hbh.  The supplier puts a push-in cage over the queen to protect her.  Apparently, if the hive is disturbed much, like on a bumpy ride, it can upset the bees enough that they will kill the queen.  The cage has a removable tab.  I took it off and put a piece of marshmallow in it so that it would be a few days until the queen is out in the general poplulation.  These are the instructions Mike provided:

Tom

Thank you for getting your Beekeeper Mike nuc.  I wanted to send you a written summary of the instructions during pick up:

There is a plastic cage confining the queen in your nuc. It was installed to protect the queen from possible hostilities of the worker bees that might have been disturbed by during their trip. 

• Please remove the frame containing the cage. If it should fall off, don't worry, the queen is most likely on the frame. So, gently remove the cage and place the frame back into the nuc or box you transferring the bees into with the intention to disturb the bees as little as possible.  
• If the cage is still in place do not try to push it further to not hurt the queen. There is a small plastic plug on the lower part of the cage. Remove the plastic plug and put in a marsh mellow in the hole. The bees will eat the marsh mellow and release the queen in a day or so.
  
  
  Once all the frames from the nuc have been transferred into your standard bee box you can dump or bang the rest of the bees in front of the new hive. Do not hit or bang the box you are transferring into or the bees could kill your new queen. Do not disturb the bees or open the box for five days or the bees will possible kill your queen. You can remove the cage in five days.
  
  Thank you,
  Beekeeper Mike 

Push-in cage

Marshmallow plug

When all the frames were in place, I put on the Vivaldi box and the hive cover, and one combination was done.  I left off the supers for now.  In one week I have to take things apart to remove the double screen boards; I'll put the supers back on then.

 

 When I looked at the door for the top box a little later, a few bees were going in and out.  About an hour later, there was a fair amount of activity.  Even later, the bees were doing orientation flights.



 I then went through the same process with the other nuc and the old hive.  This time, it did not go so smoothly.  I had to go through twice to find the queen.  I was beginning to think I would have to look again in a week and/or use the strainer method when I spotted her.  Into a jar with her. There was one frame of irregular comb and drone frame that I took out of the bottom box.

With the other hive, I had placed the top box onto the double screen before transferring the nuc frames; I neglected to do so with the old hive.   I was using the footbridge as a work space.  I saw that the push-in cage was placed so that it hung over the edge of the frame.  This made a space allowing anyone, queen or worker, to easily leave or enter the cage.  I wanted to know if the queen was in the cage so I turned the frame to look in....and the cage fell off onto the rocks of the dry creek.  Was the queen now on the ground?!  I put the frame on top of the nuc and frantically looked at the bees on and between the rocks.  No queen and no bees bunching up as they do around a queen, so I continued.  One of the frames in the top box had some burr comb on it making it impossible to place the nuc frames in without squeezing.  Since I didn't know where the queen was, I didn't want to take a chance.  The easiest thing to do seemed to be to just scrape off the burr comb, which I proceeded to do.  It was full of honey, causing a flood of honey to flow over all the frames trapping some bees.  I had to shake the comb off my tool onto the ground a few times.  With the burr comb removed and honey all over, I finished the transfer and re-assembly of the hive.  Obviously, I still don't know what I'm doing.
I worried that maybe the queen in the second nuc had been damaged or lost by me, or harmed by her own workers since she was not adequately protected.  I decided to put my old queen back in as a safety back-up.  I wanted her to be easier to find, so I tried marking her while she was in the jar.  I did mark her but got a little paint on one of her wings.  I hope that won't be a problem.  I put her on the porch and watched her crawl back into the hive.
I had to wait a few hours until close to sundown to put the package into Olea's hive.  This was easy.  All I had to do was take the cork out of the queen cage and put in a piece of marshmallow, then hang the  cage from a top bar.  I used a thumb tack to hold it.  Then mist the bees and pour them into the hive, replace the top bars, and done.  I did place the entrance feeder inside the box in the space behind the back board as I had done when I had captured the swarm.  I will be making ersatz pollen patties today with soy flour, brewer's yeast and sugar to place into Olea's hive.