nuc?

[kbenz]

will a nuc not swarm? just wondering because I never here it mentioned here.

[Ted Kretschmann]

Oh a nuc will swarm!! If you produce nucs for sale, you have to stay on top of them. We produce four frame nucs in a wooden nuc box. To prevent swarming when the nucs bee population is approaching critical mass, we add another four frame nuc super on top. The queen then will eventually move up and lay in the new box. When the box is fully laid up, we split the little nuc. We move the queen right half across the nuc yard. We place the queenless half back on the original spot. Then we either place a virgin, mated queen or cell in the new nuc. The idea is to prevent the nuc from swarming and maintaining a good four frame box of bees, brood-unsealed and capped-and good laying queen till the customer eventually arrives. A nuc that has swarmed does myself nor the customer any good even though I always have more to take the place of the swarmed nuc and give to the customer.

[KQ6AR]

Watched one of mine swarm out last weekend, then watched them come back 15 minutes later.
The queen was on the ground in front of the hive, she now resides in a new nuc.