Help with the math please.

[Vance G]

I bought 5 frame nucs that were made up the 13th of April. I direct released queens on the 16th when weather allowed. On the twentieth when I went looking for queens in these seven nucs, I only found eggs in three of them! I found capped queen cells in the one I am now talking about. Today the 1st of May I found eggs in that nuc. Laid in a good pattern, not a lot but eggs. Is this matematically possible? Now the other 'missing' queens finally started laying. I can't imagine a queen hanging fire that long before finally starting to lay. I know I have several days before I see if I have a fertile female laying. These are not laying worker eggs and don't appear to be a drone layer either. Any ideas? I wonder if I had a swarm cell on one of the nuc frames and the queen cell I saw was all but emerged when I saw her. Interesting to see if it works out.

[JCA Beeswax Processing]

I wonder if you had virgin queens in your nucs that mated and then came back to start laying eggs?

[Michael Bush]

>I direct released queens on the 16th when weather allowed. On the twentieth when I went looking for queens in these seven nucs, I only found eggs in three of them! I found capped queen cells in the one I am now talking about. Today the 1st of May I found eggs in that nuc. Laid in a good pattern, not a lot but eggs. Is this matematically possible?

I often see package queens that don't lay for two weeks. Not sure what people mean by a nuc these days, but that sounds like a package with some drawn comb... two weeks from when you released her on the 16th would be the 30th, which is yesterday. Yes it is mathematically possible.

[jrbbees]

I too am tired of people calling some frames and bees and a queen who don't know each other a NUC!
That ain't a nuc. And those sellers lied to you. A nuc is a queen, her bees and her frames. It may be a 2 frame up to a 10 frame. But it is only a NUC if they have already been living together before you came to pick them up.
If they fail you should challenge the seller for false advertising and get a replacement.
A NUC ain't a Package. They build up differently and the queen is already accepted and laying.

[Ozone]

I too am tired of people calling some frames and bees and a queen who don't know each other a NUC!
That ain't a nuc. And those sellers lied to you. A nuc is a queen, her bees and her frames. It may be a 2 frame up to a 10 frame. But it is only a NUC if they have already been living together before you came to pick them up.
If they fail you should challenge the seller for false advertising and get a replacement.
A NUC ain't a Package. They build up differently and the queen is already accepted and laying.

Yes, and a bit of confusion about a 'virgin queen ' and queen without lots of bees around her.

[Vance G]

I am a willing buyer of this guys product no matter what one calls it. I just suspect the queens had been banked a long time. He gives fair measure of bees and brood that can hardly be called drawn comb. Not at all like the horror stories I see daily on this forum. My options are an $88 three pound package from california or five good frames of brood and a caged queen for $100 where I am at. My question was not on semantics. I must have worded it poorly, sorry.

[robherc]

My mentor buys bees from a guy near here who sells "nucs." What you get for a "nuc" is 5 frames of bees, brood, and stores, with a caged queen; whether or not that technically qualifies as a "nuc" by law, I see no problem with it, so long as all parties know what is being purchased UP-FRONT. Seeing as he sells these "nucs" for about what the Weaver apiaries sell packages for, I'd say it's a pretty good deal, all told

Vance, the math sounds possible, though it does kinda sound like you might've gotten virgin queens in your nucs...I'm not at all experienced with "purchased" bees first-hand though, so take my opinions there FWIW (all my bees are from cut-outs & swarm removals...except for the one swarm that came to me lol).

[Acebird]

My supplier supplies a supplemental nuc. It is a laying queen with brood and bees and he may add more brood and bees to supplement the nuc. $70

"Everything is possible if you let it."

[KQ6AR]

the nucs I sell to club members have frames of capped brood laid by the queen they are getting. I might add more brood from another hive to make it stronger for them.
In my opinion its not a nuc until the queen is at least proven to lay good worker brood.