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Time to start nucs for overwintering?

2K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  oldsap 
#1 ·
How late can I start a nuc for overwintering in southern New England and still have a reasonable chance of getting through the winter?
 
#3 ·
With a mated Queen eggs in a few days
with a cell eggs in couple weeks
or just do a split eggs in 3 ish weeks

how many combs of bees will you start with, 3 VRS 7 is a big difference, for instance.
How many comb of stores can you add 0 to 4 is a big difference.
time to get the queen mated , lay at least 2 rounds of bees " 42 days"
Have , receive or collect enough stores for winter.

then it would depend on how hard is your winter. and how much you can baby them.

so the best answer is it depends.

GG
 
#5 ·
time to get the queen mated , lay at least 2 rounds of bees " 42 days"
GG
I gave it some "Deep Thought" too. Count back 42 days from the time a hive typically goes broodless for the fall. This is when you need to have three frames of bees, stores, and a laying queen in your nuc. Add in the days to get to the laying queen part. Here in Richmond, I can overwinter a walkaway split started the first of August, or a nuc with a queen introduced around the end of August. Any time after that becomes a crapshoot.

I realize this is all in retrospect, Since Andy originally asked the question 6 months ago. Still may help others going forward.
 
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