[Guest]

I have already done the work, but hope for some validation from all y'all. This is a local term for "you's guys."

I have a hive way low on population with no brood aside from some drone brood. It is a new hive and had a Buckfast queen. I think she is long gone and there's no evidence that a new queen is in the making. I checked twice, 7 days apart and found the same situation. I took the undrawn super off on Monday that hadn't hardly been touched this season and added a syrup pail. I went back Wednesday to put my nuc on top of it. As I pulled the pail off the opening in the inner cover, a few hundred bees spilled out (upwards) who must have been hanging from the pail. I'm sure this was more bees than were formerly living in the hive... Were these robbers?

I set the pail aside and replaced an undrawn deep frame with a frame feeder. I put a piece of newspaper across the top and placed upon it my nuc which contains 5 full frames of brood and honey. I had caged the queen earlier so she wouldn't be squashed in the shuffle. I released her back into the hive. Since the nuc is only half the width of the hive body upon which it sits, I placed a piece of plywood over the newspaper over the half not coverd by the nuc. I put the lid on the nuc, but propped it up on sticks so that the nuc bees would have their own entrance. Do you think this was a good idea, or should I force the bees to enter the lower hive through the paper, then exit the main entrance?

I don't have a way to feed the nuc bees until they chew through the paper, integrate with the bees below and find the inner feeder. Do you think this is ok?

After I finished, I noticed some bees being drug outside and dumped off the front porch by bee-gangs. I guess these were the bees that came to rob the feeder. There are 4 other hives near this one. Anyway, I noticed a bunch of dead bees in the grass below.

What do you think of my method and my observations?

 

[Iowabeeman]

The bees will chew through the paper straight away.They would probably do it even faster if you had put the lid down tight. If there were only a few hundred bees in the weak hive, you could have placed the nuc directly in the brood box and still have used the bucket feeder. The way you did it should work okay. My mentality is pretty commercial--mainly, be quick and don't make a second trip. It affects the way I do things.

 

[Jojo]

if you do this again perhaps you should put the nuc hive into a deep hive body first

exposing the hive to much, may result in robbing behavior

make sure you consider every risk before acting

 

[DLee]

Bad girls...

My hive sits next to MMundy's. If those were my bees that were robbing from the syrup pail will this effect the honey they are storing in my supers? Or is there anyway to know?

~Darin

 

[Michael Bush]

I think you did fine on the combine. If you do or don't leave an entrance they will still chew out the paper. You could have put them in a 10 frame box if you want, but the nuc on top with a board is also fine.

My only concern is the robbing. If the bottom hive is fighting off robbers, they may decide to fight off the nuc because they are in that mindset. I would have stopped feeding for at least 24 hours to let the robbers give up and maybe waited another 24 for the defensive behaviour to let up.