Hello - If I wanted to combine 2 queen-right nucs, I'd have to kill the queen in one of them. If I do that, how long should the 1 nuc remain queenless before combining with the other? 24 hours before the standard newspaper combine?
This may seem like an odd thing to do, but here's my predicament - I ordered two nucs in January, but was given notice last week that they would be delayed a few weeks. Not wanting to miss bloom this year, I picked up a package from Mann Lake, and have been very impressed by their bees so far. Super gentle italians, and they seem to be productive from dawn till dusk. I'd like to keep this hive and its queen. I only have 2 hives though, so that would mean I'd need to combine the nucs when they come. I also only have 2 hives registered with New York City, so I don't want to just buy another few deeps (I know, I know, you probably fell out of your chair when you heard we have to register our hives in NYC...I'm surprised they don't make us register our toothbrushes).
Thanks for any help and advice you could give on combining these nucs to ensure all goes smoothly.
-C-
This may seem like an odd thing to do, but here's my predicament - I ordered two nucs in January, but was given notice last week that they would be delayed a few weeks. Not wanting to miss bloom this year, I picked up a package from Mann Lake, and have been very impressed by their bees so far. Super gentle italians, and they seem to be productive from dawn till dusk. I'd like to keep this hive and its queen. I only have 2 hives though, so that would mean I'd need to combine the nucs when they come. I also only have 2 hives registered with New York City, so I don't want to just buy another few deeps (I know, I know, you probably fell out of your chair when you heard we have to register our hives in NYC...I'm surprised they don't make us register our toothbrushes).
Thanks for any help and advice you could give on combining these nucs to ensure all goes smoothly.
-C-