Dead Nuc

[kenr]

I made a new Nuc and put a Queen in a cage with them looked in on them after the third day they had the cage covered and almost eatin through the candy they were feeding the Queen not trying to kill her.I went back two days later all the bees were gone including the Queen.Anybody have a clue in what happened.

[squarepeg]

sounds like they didn't like the accommodations. how many frames did you make your nuc with, and what was on them?

[kenr]

Brood and a frame of nectur and pollen used five frames in a Jester Nuc.

[Vance G]

They will inexplicably do that on occaision. One incident I know of, a guy had 8 of 10 packages abscound and he had done nothing one would think of as wrong. No fresh paint or chemicals etc.

[Bee-tlejuice]

This was one of those instances where placing a queen excluder between the queen and the hive/nuc entrance for the first week or so may have turned the tables -- an already-mated queen who can't easily leave the hive/nuc on a whim while exploring her new domicile is more likely to start laying. Maybe she mistook the hive entrance for an opening to another chamber of the hive, went outside, the workers followed her, got the wrong idea, swarmed, and the nearest bait hive wasn't yours . Remember, bees tend to consult a different set of books than ours -- as mine seem to love reminding me, at my maximal financial expense . Try, try again!