Now that you've transported your bees to their new home it's time to install them into your hive.

This part of the process is time sensitive as the nuc is meant to be a temporary home. If you are not able to install your nuc right away be sure to place them in a well ventilated and shady location.

When you are ready to install your bees, take the lid and the inner cover off of your hive and remove frames to make space for those in the nuc (we recommend taking out at least one extra frame, to give some extra space to work with).

Carefully lift out each nuc frame and transfer them to the hive, making sure not to hit it against the side of the box or the next frame. Remember, the queen can be anywhere in the nuc, so you want to proceed with caution at all times.

Once all of the frames are in the hive there will be quite a few bees left inside on the walls of the nuc; just take a look and make sure that you don't see the queen. If she is still in the nuc help carefully transport the queen to the new hive. Any bees left in the nuc can be gently shook out of the nuc onto the top of the hive.

Lastly, take the nuc away from the hive area so the bees will not return to it.

Carefully close up your hive and give them a week or two to settle before performing your next inspection.

We recommend that all new beekeepers take as many courses and workshops as possible to learn as much as you can before investing in beekeeping.