Is it possible...

[Beesilly]

Is it possible for me to take 2 or so cups of bees from a 3lb package, and put it in a mini nuc with a queen that I would order? I would think that they would build up fast, since they are in a small box. Then when they start to get crowded, I could put them in a TBH nuc, then a regular TBH. This may be a stupid question.:(
I was just wondering. And hoping that I could make another small colony of bees from a 3 lb. package. Sorry if I'm just daydreaming!
Thanks for your time
Beesilly

[peggjam]

Well.......you could. But would you get your money's worth, proably not. It would take them a long time to build up to another box. Better idea would be to get your package going, and then split them when they have 4 frames of sealed brood.:)

[BigDaddyDS]

I concur with Peggjam!

A couple cups of bees, even if they were ALL nurse or house bees, isn't enough to cover brood duties with a half-decent queen laying eggs at a slow pace. With no bees to spare for foraging, no nectar would be brought in and even wax production would suffer.

But, as stated, you'd be much better off keeping your 3-pound package intact and splitting them after you have 4 or 5 full frames of brood. (That'd also give you time to learn how to raise your own queens too!!)

Cheers!
DS

[talkingamoeba]

Does splitting when they have 4 or 5 frames of brood allow for both to get to winter survival stage in our area? Say if the package is installed early May?

[peggjam]

Depends on how long it takes to get to 4 frames of sealed brood. If you put a package on drawn frames, they will get there faster than on foundation. It would be reasonable to expect a good queen to take a split that size to wintering size if they were split by mid July, and you feed them.:)

[Michael Bush]

A small number of bees never builds up fast. They just don't have enough workers to get all the work done. But they will do better in a smaller space.

If you're trying to build up to end up with them in a full size hive, why not use a two frame nuc that takes your standard frames?

Still they will need more bees to build up in any amount of time.

[Beesilly]

I have a TBH, not Langstroth hive. I do like the idea about splitting them after they have 4 frames of brood. But with a tbh, that would be 5-6 bars i think. Will the bees be able to survive through the winter, if i split them after 5 bars of capped brood? Thanks. I do not want my bees to struggle to build up, so I will just let them build up in the TBH first. I just really would like 2 hives before going into winter, but do not want to buy another package. Never seen a swarm or feral bees around here, perhaps if I ask the exterminator...
Thanks!
Beesilly

[Michael Bush]

>Will the bees be able to survive through the winter, if i split them after 5 bars of capped brood?

It depends on too many things to say for sure. But you can always recombine them in the fall if they don't. I would let them get pretty well established before doing a split and I wouldn't do one much past July if you actually want another full colony going into winter. And that will depend much on the fall flow.