One of the things I learning most quickly about beekeeping is that there
are many many different ways of doing things.  I'm getting some conflicting
advice locally on how to populate a hive when the bees arrive in a four
frame nuke, so I thought I'd turn to the experience of this list's
subscribers for advice.  My bees are scheduled to arrive in a few days.

My inclination is to immediately place the frames from the nuke into the
brood chamber - placing them in the center of the chamber and in the same
order that they were in the nuke.  Does this sound right?

A second question concerns the use of Wintergreen grease patties as a
prophylactic for mites. (See USDA Northeast Region SARE
http://rnoel.virtualave.net/2000/index.htm)  As a member of MOFGA (Maine
Organic Farmers & Growers Assoc.) I am very interested in using techniques
that will control mites and exposure to other pests/diseases in as natural
a way as I can.  Has anyone tried the Wintergreen patties, and if so how
well did they work?  Presuming that they do work, should I start using the
patties at the same time I put the bees in the hive from the nuke?

Many thanks in advance - I've enjoyed 'lurking' on this list for the past
few weeks.

Regards,
Andrew Dewey
Acadia Computer Corp.   Bar Harbor, ME
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