In this vlog‑style field recording, experienced beekeeper Laurence coordinates the rescue of a Buckfast nuc that has swarmed, replacing its lost queen with a white‑marked, mated queen from a mini‑mating nuc. He enlists Zane, a delivery driver with a cool car, to transport the nuc safely to beginner beekeeper Natasha, who works with Black Mountain Honey. The video walks through the step‑by‑step process: locating the queen, handling her by wing and leg, spraying the nuc for cooling, packing the frames in a box, and maintaining optimal temperature with car air‑conditioning and water during the overnight stay. Zane reports a smooth journey, and Natasha receives the calm bees, expressing excitement and concern about the queen’s survival after the swarm. The clip highlights practical queen‑handling techniques, logistical solutions for hot‑weather nuc deliveries, and the collaborative relationship between seasoned and novice beekeepers.
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And look at that, they have swarmed. I've come up with quite a good solution, Zane.
If this colony was to go wrong, I would feel incredibly guilty.
So let's get this lid off and see if we can find the queen.
So I'm sending Zane on a mission, and it's a very important mission. What we're going to do, Zane, is we're going to take this nuc, 6 frames, we're going to put it in that box over there. And you are going to take it down to Natasha and put it into her beehive for her. So what people don't know is that Zayn has got himself a cool car, yeah?
Yeah.
Do you take your trainers off before you get into the car?
Don't out me in front of everyone. Yes, I take my trainers off.
I only just found this out, so I volunteered Zayn here to take this nuc down to Natasha. So it's actually fallen on a bit of a strange week where we cancelled all of our nuc deliveries this week because it is just too hot to trust Royal Mail to send these nucs out. But I can trust Zane because—
High-speed delivery service.
High-speed delivery service and a bespoke delivery service, and that's the important bit. Zane, it's time to get the nuc into your very clean car and send the bees on their way. So this is a bit embarrassing, Natasha. I've gone to take out the final frame here, which should have the queen on and all the nice capped Brood, and look at that, they have swarmed. So frustrating. I put all the frames in the box and then I thought we could, we could go and get another nuc and do it all again, but then maybe we could just fix the problem doing something else. So I thought instead of taking it all out and starting again, I'm just going to send this down to you, Natasha, with a mated queen and with strict instruction for Zane to not mess anything up. It's all on you, Zane. Yeah, you can just pick them up and put them in. So we could go and get the pink one that we marked, we'll pop it in. You take it to Natasha's and then hopefully she survives.
That'd be pretty cool.
That would be pretty cool.
Should we go?
Yeah.
Go and get it.
Mind your head. Right, so it's as simple as this. Let's find the queen. She's white marked. I think this one we did.
Oh yeah.
Is she there?
Yeah.
Okay, cool. So the best way to pick them up there is you just get them by the wing, but you need to make sure you get it right. Pick her up by the wing. Get a wing and a leg, and then we'll just take her down there. Okay, so she's in my hand here, and I'm just going to try and give her a little hole, and then she's going to come out and hopefully go in.
Easy as that?
Easy as that. And I've never done an introduction like that and it's failed, so fingers crossed. Right, so we'll get this packaged up into Zane's car for an overnight stay at Zane's Manor, and then off to Natasha in the morning.
Yeah.
So you're going to take over now, Zane, if you want to take this.
Okay.
So show it one more time. Go on, get a real good spray in there. Yeah, that's it. So for this journey, that's fine. I would say tomorrow morning, maybe 3 or 4 versions of that. Get them nice and soaked. It'll keep them cool, and it means that the journey down to Natasha's, you should have no problem at all with heating. Right, let's go. You ready?
Yeah, all good, mate.
Okay, good man.
Okay, so the bees have arrived safely. No issues on the way here. We had the aircon blasting in the car. Just give them some water and, um, yeah, no dramas. So Ronnie's had a little sniff, made sure they're okay, and yeah, what do you think? Yeah, nothing, nothing. Anyway, gonna give them some more water before I head off to bed, and then we've got an early start tomorrow to go and meet Natasha. So yeah, I'll keep you updated. So we're on the road. I went out this morning, the bees were absolutely fine. I took off my makeshift roof that Laurence told me I needed to have, gave the bees some water. They all seemed pretty calm, no weird noises or anything like that. Loaded them up in the car and that's it, we're good to go. So we're about 30 minutes away from meeting Natasha, and although I've enjoyed having the bees, like, they've been no trouble whatsoever, I'm actually looking forward to handing them over to someone who knows what they're doing because it's been a lot of pressure If this colony was to go wrong, I would feel incredibly guilty. So yeah, looking forward to it. Morning, how are we? Good, good stuff. Um, I've got a delivery for you. Are you excited?
Yes, so excited.
Come and have a look. Natasha, are you ready to see your bees? Yeah, hopefully they're Yeah, they're still there, all in one piece.
Oh, they seem so calm.
They're pretty relaxed, aren't they? Okay, so these are now your responsibility, if that's okay.
Thank you very much.
Hi guys, let's head off to the new apiary.
Yeah, um, actually to get there you might have to have them on your lap. Okay.
Oh, so they're still— they still technically mine? Okay, brilliant. So before we start, for anyone who doesn't know Natasha, do you want to kind of explain a bit about what you do? Yeah, my name's Natasha.
I'm a beginner beekeeper. It's kind of my third year, and I've been working with Laurence and Black Mountain Honey for quite a while now, mainly behind the scenes, and also establishing a page in collaboration with Black Mountain Honey, Bees with Natasha. And yeah, today I've got a Buckfast nuc from Black Mountain Honey arriving, so I'm going to set it up at the apiary. Okay, so we've left the nuc for a few hours now. The bees have been doing their orientation flights, so we're gonna get ready to hive them. We are a little bit concerned as to whether the queen will have survived because the hive that these— this nuc came from actually swarmed. So we lost the queen. And so Laurence and Zane introduced a new queen from a mini mating nuc. But But introducing a new queen and travel, will she have made it? We shall find out. I think you said she's a white queen.
I believe so.
Marked white for this year, we think. So let's see. Okay, so the world's longest screws are out of here. It's just to make sure that they're safe and sound and the lid doesn't come off. We got those out. I've just popped my nuc over here because I'm going to transfer. them across now into the brand new hive. So let's get this lid off and see if we can find the queen. Ah, there she is, the new queen! So she's not been killed yet. I think she's been accepted, fortunately. Um, Marked white, which is the color for this year. So just before she runs off or drops, I'm gonna get her in here in the hive, safe and sound. Now we know she's in, we can kind of just get the rest of the bees in and not worry.
