Transferring from Langstroth → PB
Moving your established colony into a Primal Bee hive gives them a fresh start in an environment designed around their biological needs. The thermal efficiency of your new hive means the bees can focus their energy on growth rather than temperature regulation.
Whether you're installing a package, capturing a swarm, or moving an established colony from old equipment, the process follows the same core steps with a few key differences we'll note along the way.
Before You Begin
What you'll need:
- Package of bees and queen, or swarm, or nuc/established colony in older equipment that you'd like to transfer
- Wired wax or plastic foundation in your Primal Bee nest frames
- Temporary queen cage (Clip style works well, just to keep the queen safe during transfer)
- PPE (gloves, suit, etc.)
- Smoker and hive tool
- Empty frames for your Primal Bee nest
- Feather &/or soft bee brush (feathers or horsehair brushes seem most gentle on the bees compared to synthetic brushes)
Timing:
Spring is your friend here - when bees have access to early nectar and pollen, the queen ramps up brood production naturally. That said, you can start a colony any time the temperature stays above 50°F (10°C).
Pick your day carefully: calm, warm weather without rain or wind. Bees get cranky in bad weather, and you want them (and yourself) relaxed for this. Early morning or late afternoon works best - that's when most of your bees are home.
The Transfer Process
There are two ways to approach this, with slightly different nuances:
1) Transfers - Moving colonies from old equipment. You'll be brushing bees off existing frames with brood, which means dealing with leftover infrastructure.
2) Installations - Putting bees and queens in from packages or swarms. Simpler because there's no infrastructure - just bees and a queen, similar to how a swarm naturally operates.
The steps below work for both, with notes where they differ.
Step 1: Prepare Your Primal Bee Nest
Make sure your nest frames are ready with a wire-embedded wax foundation or plastic foundation.
Remove at least 2 frames and the follower board from your Primal Bee nest to create an empty space for shaking the bees. This open area makes the transfer smoother and less stressful for the colony.
Step 2: Secure the Queen
Locate your queen in the old hive and cage her. Set the caged queen aside safely while you transfer the workers. This prevents her from getting lost or damaged during the shaking process. A few attendants will likely follow and cling to the queen cage, this is fine- let them stay close to her to feed and groom her during the transfer.
Step 3: Prepare the Bees
First prepare the bees for the transfer by either dusting them with powder sugar or giving them a light mist with light sugar water in a spray bottle. This will keep the bees from flying during the transfer as the bees will be busy cleaning each other off and it is more difficult for them to fly until the have been cleaned. Powder sugar has the added benefit of knocking off phoretic mites that may be trying to cling to the bees.
Step 4: Transfer the Bees
[For transfers from old equipment]: Working frame by frame from your old hive, gently brush (using soft bee brush or feather) and/or shake the bees from the old combs directly into the Primal Bee nest.
[For packages/swarms]: Shake or pour the bees directly into the Primal Bee nest from the package or swarm container.
The bees will naturally cluster in the space you've created. Don't worry about getting every single bee - stragglers will find their way to the new hive through sensing queen and Nasanov pheromones.
Step 5: Replace the Frames
Once you've transferred as many bees as possible from the old equipment to the Primal Bee nest box - slowly, gently, carefully begin to reinsert the Primal Bee nest frames that you had earlier removed and set aside. The bees will begin to walk up the foundation of these frames naturally, but if you push the frames in too quickly you will likely harm the bees in the process. Save one frame to release the queen onto before replacing it in the nest box.
Step 6: Release the Queen
Here's where things differ based on whether your queen already knows her workers:
If you're transferring an established colony (the queen that laid these eggs), Primal Bee's thermal stability lets you release her directly - no cage needed. The bees already recognize her pheromones.
If you're introducing a new queen (to an existing colony or with a package), she needs protection. Think of it like introducing a stranger to a tight-knit family - they need time to adjust to her scent, or they'll treat her as an invader.
The Gradual Release Method:
Use a small wooden queen cage with a screen on one side (for ventilation and pheromone exchange) and a metal clip to secure it in the hive. One end has a small hole, initially plugged with either a wooden cork or a candy plug made from fondant.
Here's the elegant part: swap the wooden cork for the candy plug before placing her in the hive. Over 3-7 days, the worker bees will chew through the candy to reach her. Initially, they might act aggressively toward the cage, but by the time they eat through that candy, they've acclimated to her scent and typically accept her as their queen. The timing works out perfectly - the candy's hardness naturally matches the acclimation period bees need.
For all transfers: Before inserting your last frame, carefully release the queen and her attendants onto it, then gently slide it into place. Take your time here - you don't want to roll or harm her in the process.
Step 7: Primal Bee Hive Placement
If you're transferring from old equipment, here's a helpful trick: move the old equipment 5-10 feet away from its original spot, then place your Primal Bee hive right where the old one was.
Why? There's a rule in beekeeping - "3 feet or 3 miles." Move something more than 3 feet away, and bees stop paying attention to it. They'll reorient to the hive at the original location instead of drifting back into the old equipment. This is exactly what you want.
Secure your hive - either strap it onto a stable hive stand, or at minimum, run a strap vertically around the entire hive (from outer cover to bottom board). Place straps on the sides where they won't block the entrance. This protects against wind and curious animals.
Step 8: Configure the Nest
Start your colony in Initial Feeding Configuration (page 21) with the follower board positioned appropriately:
- Strong colonies: All 8 frames, no follower board needed
- Weak colonies: Start with 4 frames plus 1 follower board
Managing space is really the beekeeper's main job. Give bees too little room and they'll swarm (their natural instinct to reproduce as a colony). Give them too much space at once, and you get wax moths and small hive beetles moving in - there simply aren't enough bees to patrol a huge cavity, which pulls them away from foraging and caring for brood.
The follower board lets you control this beautifully. As you check on them (every couple weeks), watch for comb building.
Once they've drawn out about half the frames you've given them access to - roughly 1.5-2 frames of good comb - move the follower board over and give them another frame. Keep doing this until they're using all available space.
At that point, you can either keep the 8th frame as a second follower board or add foundation and turn it into a working frame.
One quirk to expect: Bees can crawl over or under the follower board. You might place them on one side, come back, and find they've moved to the other. That's fine - just adjust the board to wherever they've decided to live. They know what they're doing.
If you won't check the hive for a month, consider giving them 2 frames at once instead of 1, so they don't run out of room while you're away.
[For transfers from old equipment only - skip this section if installing a package/swarm]
You have several options for handling brood from your previous hive:
Transfer to another standard hive colony: Move brood frames to strengthen an existing hive
Create a nurse colony: Distance the old standard hive from your Primal Bee hive by at least 5-10 feet. Wait 15 days until most larvae transform into bees, then shake down the newborns into your new Primal Bee hive.
Move the old equipment at least 5-10 feet away from its original location. Bees returning from foraging or confused bees that emerge will reorient to the Primal Bee hive at the original footprint rather than returning to the old equipment.
Assess and abandon: In cases of high contamination risk from Varroa mites or brood disease, abandon the old frames entirely
Post-Transfer Care
Feed immediately and regularly - think of it as their startup fuel.
Here's the simple liquid sugar recipe: Fill a mason jar about 3/4 full with regular granulated sugar, then add hot water until it won't dissolve any more - that's your supersaturated solution.
Why hot water? Two reasons: it dissolves more sugar than cold water would, and the final solution freezes at a lower temperature (handy in colder weather). But here's the really cool part: bees can't fully digest all that sugar, so they excrete the excess as beeswax flakes from tiny slits in their abdomen. The more you feed them, the more wax they produce, and the faster they'll draw out comb for storing food and raising brood.
Other feeding options include: solid sugar (fondant or candy board), pollen patties, or high fructose corn syrup if you want to maximize wax production.
Use an 80% sugar, 20% water solution through your Primal Bee feeding system.
The good news: Primal Bee's thermal efficiency means less feeding compared to standard hives - bees aren't burning through stores just to stay warm. That said, adjust feeding based on your bees' needs, the season, and local forage. In winter, keep feeding until they have natural food sources available in their landscape.
Monitoring Your Transfer
Temperature is everything for inspections. Never open your hive below 55-60°F. If you absolutely must check (say, you can't sleep wondering what's happening), make it lightning-fast. Cold air and moisture rushing in forces bees to burn energy warming back up - energy they'd rather spend on building and foraging.
On decent days above 60°F, you can do proper inspections.
Aim for a quick look every 15 days or so, but this isn't about finding the queen, counting eggs, and checking every frame. Save that pressure for later.
After 15 days, you're looking for two things:
- Fresh brood (capped brood, larvae, or eggs) - if you see any of these, close up and celebrate. Queen's doing her job.
- Drawn comb - you want at least 2-3 frames built out before moving that follower board over.
Can't find the queen? Don't panic.
Watch the entrance instead. See bees flying in with bright yellow pollen baskets on their back legs? That's baby food. Adult bees barely eat pollen - they're bringing it in for larvae. Pollen baskets = brood = working queen.
After 30 days, peek under the top cover and check frame coverage. If bees are spilling onto the follower boards, swap them out for frames with fresh foundation.
Signs of Success
Your colony has successfully adapted when you observe:
- Normal foraging patterns resuming within days
- Bees drawing out new comb on the Primal Bee frames
- Queen laying eggs in the continuous brood frame system
The transfer process creates temporary disruption, which makes Primal Bee's thermal efficiency immediately beneficial. Your bees will spend less energy reestablishing their internal environment and more energy on productive activities.
