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Curious about your intention to make midsummer splits with one frame of brood and expecting them to overwinter.
Is this something you have tried before? If so, hats off for such an increase. If...

My comment was for a person that appeared to have ordered spring bees but got summer bees instead. Your statement is true for sellers promising every last bee they think they can make so you won't...

I combined one this morning just putting over an inner cover. I've found that woks well. With the newspaper combine, you can either stagger the hive bodies or give them a top entrance.

I just packed up and sold 3 more nucs this morning. Great looking nucs if I may say so myself. 3 frames of brood plus 2 frames of resources each. I consider this sale much different than the ones...

2 more weeks is pretty late in the season for a nuc. No honey this year.
You might try to renegotiate for a full hive if the budget allows.

On the other hand, I know people here just getting...

No concern with breeding from a queen that lays multiple eggs?

A month is a long time with no queen. There aren't any nurse bees to take care of a new queen. You'll need to add a frame of emerging brood if you want to try again. That means taking resources from...

I've found that when using foundationless frames, adding supers early doesn't carry the same issues as foundation or drawn comb since there are no attractants for SHB or moths.

I've been making splits for increase this year as well. I started feeding syrup, but since there is so much available now they really seem to have no interest in it. I made up too much, and now have...

Keeping in mind what Mr Bush said about afterswarms, using an excluder could keep a virgin from mating.

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I bought a load early this spring and found them to be a great deal on some great bees.

Can you explain what this means? What is being alternated?

To clarify, my overwinter nuc setup was 2 5 over 5's pushed tightly together with 2" styrofoam covering them both. After reading all Mike Palmer's messages about nucs, I built a couple hundred 5...

I have one that I overwintered in 2 deeps, and is now working on the 4th deep. That's the same as 2 10 frame deeps except that the 4th is being used by the bees for honey only with no excluder. The...

I agree with the other posts that the answer is yes. I brought up a load of bees and sold half this spring. Some folks have reported a swarm, and I've had some swarms myself.

In fairness to all...

So just for clarification,

Who here scrapes plastic frames and reuses them without rewaxing? I have a few hundred to deal with myself.

Walt, I thought it was normal for bees to backfill the brood area while waiting for the queen, and then move that up once the queen starts laying.

I had some afterswarms myself this spring. It...

Sounds like they are ready for a second box. New white wax under the inner cover (or hive top feeder) is usually a good indicator it's time to add room.

I bought 80 deeps with fairly new plastic frames this spring. The boxes were worth what I paid, so I thought even if the bees only draw out half the plastic it would be worth using them.

My bees...

This looks good on paper Michael, but I've had little luck trying to implement it. A "Non-Productive" hive won't have 8-10 frames of brood to make 4-5 nucs. Where am I going wrong?

Speaking of Amatraz, The Farm Store announced Taktic availability in the US, and are advertising it as mite control for beekeepers.

Site Moderator: I'm just reporting a fact.

Given the stated goal of making splits, I'd use the mail order queen in one of the splits to help prevent swarming, and make splits with what's left. Use 2 queen cells per split.
Mel's May split...

Is it still considered valid to feed to stimulate drawing the second deep of foundation (or foundationless)?

I've told newbees to feed until the 2nd deep is "mostly" drawn out.

Are you making nucs with one frame of brood, or using these to raise queens?

If making nucs, how long would it take this to ready for winter?

Do you feed these?

Do you rewax these after powerwashing?