splits---nuks

[droneman]

do bees fight much when frames of bees are put together from different hives

[Russ]

When combining 2 hives you can use a sheet of newspaper and cut a slit in the paper and the bees will clean it out. By that time they will be past fighting. Dale

[Michael Bush]

If you put frames from different hives together in the same box they will fight.

Sometimes a lot of bees get killed. The newspaper method is the most common method for combining them. Sometimes when doing shaken swarms bees from several hives are shaken off into the same box. Usually they are sprayed with a little water or very thin sugar water. Also usually they are young bees from the brood nest.

[hoosierhiver]

i've mixed up frames from several hives in one 5-frame nuc without too much fighting,try not to get many field bees(make your split in the middle of a good day),nurse bees are less agressive,also i spray the bees and box(be careful of brood) with sugar water with anise oil in it,as well as smoking them alot.

[Clayton]

Hi,

I normally use frames from different colonies to make up nucs. I usually see very little fighting. I do as Br. Adam recommends and expose the bees to light for a few minutes then after the complement of frames are out from several colonies. I go back and stock the nuc boxes. Bees thus treated seem to fight little. For example. Pull three frames of brood from 10 colonies systematically setting against hive or nuc boxes in a sunny spot. This gives 30 frames of brood. Go back to first frames pulled add three centered in each box, then one honey and foundation. The colonies are still open and two frames of bees shaken in. Close up. Go down the line. Should give 10 nucs or 15 nucs with two frames of brood (adding extra drawn comb). With this method you know the resources you have to work with. Some colonies may be able to give up 4 frames other only 1 or 2. Then you can divide up and make similar strengthed nucs/splits or what have you.

Clay

[rainesridgefarm]

I have been told that the best way is to do it the way Clayton stated. If you let the frames with bees "air out" the Pheromone from the queen will be less and they will not fight. If you spray them down before you put them together this also helps.

[rbruno]

Question creating nucs as Clayton described

If I created a nuc using Italian brood but introduced a Carnolian queen, would this work?

Seems like it shouldn't make much difference being that the nurse bees are accepting.

thanks

Rich

[Michael Bush]

From my experience, breed of the queen and the brood are irelevant to success.

[Clayton]

Hi Micheal,

From my experience, breed of the queen and the brood are irelevant to success.

reply:

Same here. However I have seen an iteresting pic shown to me by Barry. It was a battery box of queens with russian queens and another commercially available stock (can't remember). The bees used to cover the queens in this battery were all on the other stock with very few on the russians. Something different about the phermones released by the russian stock. Haven't work with russian stock personaly but was a very interesting pic. Maybe Barry could find it?


Clay

[Michael Bush]

I've introduced Russian queens to other stock with no problems though.

[odfrank]

If reading Brother Adams' "Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey", was a legally required prerequisite to becoming a beekeeper, we wouldn't need these forums to answer beginners questions. I as so impressed by his writings 25 years ago, that I both visited him and switched to deep Dadant frames for my brood chambers. Built a dozen twelve frame deep hives with square medium depth supers, still in use today. And this last winter I made 16 deep frame Langstroth dimension hives.

[Michael Bush]

What if you used the 12 frame Dadant deep box on the bottom, standard Langstroth boxes for supers on top and just board to cover the gap for the difference? Then you wouldn't have to lift those 12 frame boxes and you wouldn't have to build them.

[Ian]

I find brood and bees can be mixed up easily, if done right. I go through the bee yards and pull extra frames to make up splits without hessitation. I think the bees get disorientated and confused, with mixing sents of the queen and with their new surroundings. I always introduce a new queen into the made up splits, to which she is mostly accepted within three or four days.

[droneman]

thank for all the replys

[odfrank]

I only have 31 square medium honey supers for my 12 square deep hives, so I do in most years have to stack on some Langstroth dimension supers with a board to cover the gap. I this year found at Swienty in Denmark, square Queen excluders for my 12 frame hives, so this is the first year in 20 some years that I didn't have Langstroth dimension excluders with boards taking up the extra 3.75 inches. I rarely move hives, and I think a twelve frame deep weighs less than a double Langstroth. As one is using a single brood chamber, one doesn't often have to lift it full, unles moving orcleaning the bottom board.

[raybo1331]

clayton if one were to use a screened board on top of a stroung hive would the two splits requeen them selfs. how long if one hadhoney how long befor one move.