Will this work?

I want to buy bees from a beekeeper nearby, I want to expand my apiary this year. This is how I planned it:

- Buy 3 frames // 2 with Brood, 1 with Honey and Pollen
- Place in 5 frame nuc (2 frames will be empty)
- Add virgin queens to every hive, If they don't lay within a week: Replace with bought laying queen
- Add protein patties every week or two

---

Will this work? Any suggestions/recommendations?

---

P.S. I'm in Sacramento / San Francisco, CA area. Pretty good weather here most of the time. Doesn't snow where I keep my bees.

Not if there are not any nurse bees.

if you want to give them a virgin queen and expect eggs in one week maybe a book on beekeeping would be a good start. good luck

Give the virgins 2-3 weeks to lay.

Hey Mark,
Take into consideration what everyone else said & it will work.
Otherwise I have some small nucs with laying queens in concord for $90

Good luck.

It would work in San Mateo. They stay small until February and then explode, if they survive the winter collapse.

Of course I would put nurse bees in... But I think virgins aren't a good idea. Mated ones would be the best option

Agreed. With virgins you might expect a maybe 75% mating success, but you'll have to wait 3 weeks to know. Then, the ones that didn't work out need requeening but by this time there are a number of issues that will make requeening tricky.
A mated queen will give more certainty plus get things kicked off straight away.

Just depends if your goal is economy, with some risk attached, (go virgins), or if the cost is less of an issue and you want those nucs firing up straight away, (go mated queens).

Just, since you are paying for the bees you already have an investment. Mated queens are the best way to protect that investment.