The best time of day to install a nuc is in the evening, when all the foragers have returned.
Beekeepers know that the one and only thing that can turn your lovely, calm installation into a complete and utter disaster is a bunch of bees going, “What the hell is going on here then?”
Once that happens, it’s over. You’ll be surrounded by a swirling cloud of bees, and they won’t leave you alone. It’s not like they’re out to sting you or anything, but they’ll just get really up in your grill, and it’s impossible to do anything in that situation.
Now, the bees that are coming in the nuc will probably be fine, but the problem is that foragers do not like change. That’s why you have to wait until evening when they’ve all come back.
The best way to install a nuc is to take the nuc box, and put it right next to where you want the hive to be. Then, take out a few frames from the nuc box, and put them into the hive.
Now, you take each frame out one by one from the nuc box, and shake the bees off of them into the hive. You’ll have to shake them off multiple times for every frame, but eventually they’ll all be in the hive, and then you can put the lid on.
The next day, you can come back and pick up the now empty nuc box, because all the bees will have moved to the hive.
When you do this, you always have to shake the bees off of the frames into the hive. You can’t just dump the frames in, because then you’ll have to shake the bees off the top of the frames, which is impossible. They’ll just stay there.
One thing that people do is put the frames into the hive one by one, shaking the bees into the hive as they go, but this is more difficult than it sounds, because the bees on the frames will be getting more and more agitated the more you shake them, and they’ll start flying at you and headbutting you.
Another thing that people do is use a bee brush to gently brush the bees off the frames. This works, but it’s time consuming, and it’s just not practical for when you’re installing a full nuc, because there’ll be too many frames to brush.
What to Do if You Have to Install Your Nuc in the Morning
You have to be very careful to only take out one frame at a time, and shake the bees off of it. It’s actually possible to do this without the bees becoming agitated at all, if you do it gently enough.
What you’ll probably find is that the bees will start to get a bit agitated, and then you’ll just have to wait for them to calm down before you do the next frame.
Take your time, and be patient.
Remember, if you’re in a rush, the bees will know, and they’ll think, “What on earth is going on here?” They’ll become agitated, and it’ll all go downhill from there.
If you do this right, you can do a daytime installation without a problem, but it’s still best to do it when all the foragers have returned, so in the early evening.