need advice on making nucs

[valleyman]

I suddenly have a wealth of pure Russian Queens. So I decided to make nucs. I'm using deeps, divided in half. With the drawn comb I have on hand they will look like this. 2 frames of brood in each, which I will replace with drawn comb in the hives that they came from. 1 frame of drawn comb in each, and 2 frames of foundation. I know that I will need to feed heavily. My question is will this work for me? I also will requeen all my other hives.

[beedeetee]

It depends on how many frames of extra bees you shake in. That size (two frames of bees and brood) nuc might be okay in mid May around here, but for the first of August it would be a big risk.

We never have a fall flow so I don't know how nucs would do on one. My August nucs were always a frame of pollen, a frame of honey and three frames of brood.

[D Coates]

Are you wanting to know how to make the nuc boxes or if the two frames of bees/brood will be sufficient for your plans? How many hives are you stealing the frames from (you don't want to over weaken your existing hives)? Where did the queens come from, swarm cells or did you over buy (how fresh are they)? You've got the feed, feed, feed correct.

If you're wanting to know if that set up will work I'd say yes as long as you literally keep them fed until all the frames are drawn and at least the outer ones are full and capped. For those nucs that don't build up (for whatever reason, invariably a runt or two may occur) don't be afraid the pinch the queen and combine with another hive before winter though.

[Beenign]

I went to a nuc making workshop here in VT a couple weekends ago. We were taught to make the nucs with one frame of brood, one of food (honey), one half brood (which hopefully has some honey/pollen stored as well) and one empty, either drawn comb or foundation. I made a couple nucs this way, introduced the new queens 24 hours after making them and checked a week later to see how they took. The queens were laying well and the bees were filling up the empty with honey. What I'm getting at is, if it's not to late to make a nuc in Vermont and feeding isn't necessary until later in the summer, if you give them a good mix of what would usually be in the hive, and there is some nectar available, they might take just fine without feeding. Good luck!

[valleyman]

I agree that if one doesn't take off well the best thing to do would be to combine them with another nuc. The queens were in the mail 7 days.
they arrived surprisingly in really good shape. I immediately gave them plenty of water. The Breeder in the meantime shipped more queens express mail. So to be fair with him I am going to try to use all of them. Thats the reason for the nucs. I hope that I can get them strong enough to get them in a full 10 frame deep. We normally will have a fall flow, and I will feed, feed, feed, 2-1 syrup as long as they will take it. last year that was until around 11-15. Then I will either keep candy or mountain camp sugar available all winter, above the cluster. If the queens will live and lay a good pattern I will pay Mr. Bob Brachman for them all. I believe in being fair. He in good faith mailed them 7-15, then the post office lost them. Not his fault. Most of the Russian Breeders are excellent to do business with. I will be drawing brood from 4 really strong hives, and 2 fairly strong hives. Should I put some of the drawn comb in the hives to replace the brood and bee?. Or would you use it in the nucs first and not use new foundation in them, instead using the new foundation in the hives. I'm inclined to use drawn comb in the nucs, with no new foundation. Oh, I'm requeening all 6 hives and the 4 nucs.

[RayMarler]

I'm like you, I'd put the foundation into the stronger hives. Yes feed, and don't forget the pollen patties since you need maximum brood rearing as well as the wax production. They'll draw wax faster too if they need the space for brood as well as stores.

[valleyman]

2 hives done!! 1 nuc done!! Man its hot here!! Went thru the top box of another hive, couldn't find the queen. She should have been in the top box because it has brood. some covered, some uncovered, differient stages. Will, after cooling off and having lunch, move to another hive. Left all the brood in this hive as it needs to draw more comb and build up. It needs to be requeened because it hasn't built up like it should. It is Mn. hygenic and the other hive that was robbed out was Mn. hygenic.

[timgoodin]

Be careful, we are under a heat advisory today. Its mighty easy to get too hot in a bee suite and veil. I've been working early morning and late evening.

I like to give my nucs drawn comb so they can focus on buildup. Unfortunately unless I really pour the syrup to them even a strong hive doesn't draw much around here after June due to dry weather and dearth. After they get established good and fill the nuc box I like to give the one frame of foundation to draw while feeding them. You should have good luck with them, if we have a fall flow they could still pull in some nectar but the mountain camp method works well if not and also provide insurance for a longer than usual winter.

Good Luck,

Tim
West Kentucky

[sqkcrk]

I suddenly have a wealth of pure Russian Queens. So I decided to make nucs. I'm using deeps, divided in half. With the drawn comb I have on hand they will look like this. 2 frames of brood in each, which I will replace with drawn comb in the hives that they came from. 1 frame of drawn comb in each, and 2 frames of foundation. I know that I will need to feed heavily. My question is will this work for me? I also will requeen all my other hives.

Sure, why not? Aught to.

Michael Bush's tag line is something like "Everything works if you let it."

[valleyman]

I had checked the 4 nucs 7-30 and determined that I had one queen in one side of each. So on 7-31, I pulled a 1" strip from between the nucs, letting them comingle. On 8-3, I put them in their own deep hive body. One was strong enough and had a lot of nectar in it so I added another deep with foundation. I expect them to begin drawing it soon from the fullness of the bottom. Lots of bees. The other was rather weak so I took a frame of brood, all stages, with nurse bees and added it to the weak nuc. There is several 3-4 day old brood in the nuc already. I also know that I have at least 2 other hives that are queenright. They were from the fresh queens. The 2 queens that I lost in the nucs were from the 7 day lost in the mail Queens. I would love for all of them to have made it but 2 out of 4 isn't bad for nucs with distressed Queens. I will report more when I check my others in a few days. I still have 2 fresh queens and 2 distressed queens to check. It's still a little soon to bother them if I don't have to.