[Stitches]

If I have a queenright nuc and a queenright colony, can I pull frames of bees from the colony (making sure the frames don't have the queen on them) and add them to a nuc without causing a war? I have a couple nucs that I started a week ago that I don't think I put enough bees in and want to add some more. Is this the best solution or is there another method I should use?

I was also thinking of taking frames of brood and honey from the colonies, brushing the bees off and adding those to the nucs, but I'm concerned that there won't be enough bees in the nucs to rear the brood on the added frames.

What would you do?

 

[WilliamsHoneyBees]

No problem. All the old worker bees will head straight back to the old colony, the young nurse bees won't leave. Try to shake or more bees from frames of "open" brood. This will result in more young bees.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

That's exactly what you want to do. Many if not most nucs are made up from multiple colonies.

 

[Michael Palmer]

A frame of emerging brood will have a more positive effect.