Raise a queen

[pfrichar]

Hi-

If i just want to raise one queen as an insurance policy, what is the best way to do so. I figured I would move a few frames with brood and honey to a nuc and they would make a queen. If that works, then what if I want to hold on to her until I need her?

[AndreiRN]

I have a similar scenario and the young queen is in a nuc that filled up realy fast so I keep stealing a frame of brood every 2 weeks and put an empty one.
Soon I should give her a regular box.

[tecumseh]

sounds doable... a smaller (half size nuc) box should (when timed with some flow) make it fairly simple process. use you best stock and remove a small quantity of bees (from the brood area) plus a frame of very young larvae. I would likely want to move this unit some distance away from the 'mother hive' to limit drifting back to the original hive. then let the girls do all the work.

[pfrichar]

Then what do I do with the small nuc after the queen is produced? Won't that get quickly over-crowded?

[mgmoore7]

Just keep removing a frame or 2 to keep that hive from building up too much, or let it build up and if you need that queen due to loosing the other queen, do a combine.