Necessity of feeding a mating nuc

[bikebum3]

I am a hobbyist who plans to raise a few queens this spring in southwestern Montana. I intend to partition some deep hive bodies into 2 or 3 compartments for mating nuc purposes.

My question is this: as long as nectar and pollen are naturally available to the mating nucs, is it absolutely essential to feed them? If not, I can make a three-way partition out of each deep box. Thank you for your insights.

Doug Stream
Belgrade, Montana

[robherc]

When you first set up a mating nuc, it's generally a bit short on foragers as you're mainly adding younger, nurse bees...so I'd feed it (and I don't generally like to feed much)...that, or I'd use a bigger (5-8 frame) nuc that had a bit of stored honey in it (like I said, I don't like feeding).

[Broke-T]

My mating nucs have 3 full size medium frames. I make them up with 1 frame of open honey, 1 frame of mostly capped brood, and 1 frame of foundation.

I pulled queens out yesterday and the frame of foundation was drawn and filled with honey in nearly every one. I pulled a frame of honey out of nearly every one and replaced it with another frame of foundation.

So I would say you don't need to feed.

Johnny

[cklspencer]

I have several deep boxes with portions creating 4 matting nucs in each with two deep frames. I add frames of drawn comb and bees to each box. I feed them at first, both pollen patties and sugar water. Once there is a good work force I keep my eye on the weather and what is coming in. I found out the hard way when we had several weeks of poor weather with just a break here and there and lost many of my mating nucs. You are better to feed and once they have some stores than you just need to monitor them and feed as needed. I switch out frames to control the number of bees in the box and use the frames of brood to boost up other weak hives or mating nucs.