Transferring small cluster to a nuc in mid-winter

[Dan in PA]

Folks,

I've been wondering about this for a few days: I have a colony with a small cluster which is fairly light on stores (using Mountain Camp method just in case). Would there be any benefit to transferring them to a double story 5-frame nuc? This would be done on a warm (55+ degree) day. I was thinking the reduced "dead" space around them would be beneficial, but disrupting them that much even on a fairly warm day is probably a bad idea.

Thanks for any input,


Dan

[jmgi]

There are a couple things you could do rather than disturb them that much, if you have any extra frames of honey you could open the hive and insert a comb of honey right up next to the cluster without breaking up the cluster, if you do that make sure the comb or combs of honey are at least room temperature. If you are mountaincamping already that should be fine by itself, but I would do the mountaincamp on top of the frames above the cluster instead of on the inner cover, using a damp newspaper and sugar poured on top with a 2" feed rim to make room for the pile of sugar, you can do this on a nice day too just move quickly. John

[Dan in PA]

There are a couple things you could do rather than disturb them that much, if you have any extra frames of honey you could open the hive and insert a comb of honey right up next to the cluster without breaking up the cluster, if you do that make sure the comb or combs of honey are at least room temperature. If you are mountaincamping already that should be fine by itself, but I would do the mountaincamp on top of the frames above the cluster instead of on the inner cover, using a damp newspaper and sugar poured on top with a 2" feed rim to make room for the pile of sugar, you can do this on a nice day too just move quickly. John

Yup, they're already Mountaincamped. They've been taking cleansing flights so hopefully the cluster is able to get to new stores. We're supposed to have a 55 degree day this week and I'll be taking a peek to see what's left then.

Dan