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nuc rearrange

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  GregB 
#1 ·
Hello, all,

I have a nuc, which I made earlier this spring. It's doing okay. I did an inspection today and noticed a bit of wax worm activity on a small bit of comb towards the back. Their numbers are a bit low.

I did reduce the entrance so that they could defend better.

Another thought I was having was to rearrange the combs a bit, which is what I am curious about what people would think about this.

The first two bars have small beginner combs, which aren't getting bigger, both covered in bees though. It's bar #3 that has a decent size comb with good bee coverage as well.

I was think of moving the two small combs towards the back and putting #3 right up next to the entrance, which I have at the front end of the hive, not the middle. I figured this would also help the defend better.

What do y'all think about this idea?

thanks,
Thomas
 
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#2 ·
How many drawn bars total does this have? A nuc made in the spring in GA should be 10-12 bars big by now, not fighting off a wax moth infestation. What does the rest of it look like? How large is the entrance? While I do rearrange the combs when warranted, just having you put bar #3 up front won't make them defend the nest any better. You've got something else going on.
 
#3 ·
If this is nuc is "weak" whatever it may mean to you (but typically this means that the population is stretched thin over the real estate they have) - a single entrance of 1/2 inch in diameter is enough for them. Do that.
In my case, I have extra holes plugged by paper and they will unplug any extra holes as they need (I said enough about paper usage).

Reduce the volume of the nuc only to the combs they cover (plus 1-2 combs at most).
This way they patrol the entire nest AND are actually able to properly condition the volume for the proper colony function.
Just remove those unused/just started combs completely out into your storage.
Create a compact and densely covered colony by the very entrance.
I have been ranting about follower boards enough - use them.

Any comb rearrangements inside are irrelevant to the hive defense.
Bee will be able to defend the entrance which creates a bottle neck.
But once the robbers are beyond the bottle-neck, they are free to do as they wish.
However - this is where the bee density comes in.
Bee density inside the colony IS relevant to the hive defense.
So again, IF your combs are densely covered by your bees (see reduction above), then the robbers (and moth and SHB) have hard time to invade those combs.
 
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