Making Nucs

[Michigan Hobby]

Need an answer from the pros. I have always assumed that by having two nucs with a follower board in a deep hive body one had to make sure the bees did not come in contact with each other. But I saw the board that "Better Bee" has for sale and it is advertised with an excluder. My question is " can the bees with two excluded queens travel back and forth in the same "hive" as long as the queens do not come in contact with each other?"

[Ian]

>>Need an answer from the pros.

Im not a pro, but here is my advice.

>>can the bees with two excluded queens travel back and forth in the same "hive" as long as the queens do not come in contact with each other?"

Yup, but it is not that easy. It is what you can call a two queen nuc. Guys up here do it all the time.

What they do is, just what you discribed, start two nuc, with a break b/w them in the chamber. So reall you are making two new independent nests. Then, as the colonies expand into the already ongoing honey flow, they put an excluder over the nest, and super overtop as a regular hive. I think merging the two during a flow is important, to preoccupy the bees of the changing queen pharmones. This is how I think we sometimes find two queens running normally managed hives, due to supercedure during a heavey flow. Plus, two non agressive queens, I guess,.?
These guys get two stronge nucs to overwinter indoors, and all the honey collected late in the flow. Kind of like running a two queened colony, but on a much smaller scale.

I dont get that fancy. I just release a mated queen with one frame of brood and honey, into a chamber full of foundation. I usually do this at the onset of our honeyflow, come back in three to four week and keep adding supers of foundation. Works for me, easy, lots of new drawn comb to start a new nest, and a bit of honey left over.

Anyway, I guess there is

[Michigan Hobby]

Thanks Ian.

Hoping to increase my hives this year by making splits and appreciate all the advice I can get. Wonderful forum, but I have to admit everyone has their own ideas and have alot more experience than I. Sometimes it is diffucult reading it all and deciding what corse of action to take about this bee business. I know I'll have to make my own decisions and someday may be offering advice myself.

Thanks again.

[ScadsOBees]

Michigan Hobby,
where in SW MI are you?

-rick

[Michigan Hobby]

Hello. I'm from Bangor. Actually between Bangor and S. Haven. Learned what I know about bees 25 years ago when I used to live in Thailand. I fought mites there before they even came to the USA. Was so disappointed that they made it here. Glad to get to know you scadsobees. From Jenison I see.

[Michigan Hobby]

By the way great pics. Thanks