I have a question to the experts here on how to load nurse bees to a Mini Mating Nuc with just foundation. This is what I did yesterday and it was a disaster this morning. I dumped 2 cups of nurse bees from a hive, sprayed with a diluted sugar syrup and dumped into the Mini Mating Nuc . All good last evening. I transported them to a diff yard (in this case my backyard) last night. When I checked this morning all of the nurse bees are dead or dying in the front of the mini mating nuc. What happened is instead of they staying inside they all came out and got killed with the light rain. So my questions are two fold.
1) Did I opened the entrance too soon? Should have kept them closed for 2 days. I thought I moved them more than 3 miles I didnt have to do that?
2) Since it is just foundation only, they came out. If i had kept a temp queen substance, could have helped the bees to stay inside?
3) What is the best way to load Mini Mating nucs in general. I dont want to make the same mistake again.
Thanks for all the help
Best
Shibu Raj
1) Did I opened the entrance too soon? Should have kept them closed for 2 days. I thought I moved them more than 3 miles I didnt have to do that?
2) Since it is just foundation only, they came out. If i had kept a temp queen substance, could have helped the bees to stay inside?
3) What is the best way to load Mini Mating nucs in general. I dont want to make the same mistake again.
Thanks for all the help
Best
Shibu Raj