[challenger]

I have a mini mating nuc with a laying queen and only about a cup of bees I want to combine with a queenless, 5 frame split. I am doing this to so I can put my queen rearing equipment away and this is the last mini nuc I have to deal with. The mini nuc has a screen bottom so I placed it on top of the 5 frame queenless nuc figuring it would be like a large queen cage. How long should I wait to combine the two?
Thanks

 

[BEES4U]

You might consider caging out your queen, place her in the 5FN, unite the bees, and then after at least 3-4 days introduce your queen.
Make sure that you knock down all rogue or natural cells.
Good luck,
Ernie

 

[challenger]

Are you saying cage out the queen by placing her in a 5fn or caging her in another manner then placing her in a 5fn?
Thanks-Howard

 

[Fred Bee]

Couldn't you just newspaper the two nucs together?

 

[challenger]

Well I think my theory proved true. I united the mini mating nuc (with screened bottom)bees/queen. I suspect the screen separation acted in a similar way that newspaper would but I figured newspaper might be chewed too quickly.
I had a close call in combining the two because the awkwardness of trying to dump the mini nuc into the 5fn. When I did this of course there were bees flying all over. I spotted the queen and gauged my tilt so she would tumble in and thought she had. As I was putting the mini nuc down I hear a buzz from something other than a drone or worker and the queen flies by me and lands on the outside of the hive next to me. I quickly grabbed her and shoved her into the top of the 5fn where she then crawled between 2 frames.
I will check in a week for eggs.
Thanks
Howard