[Billboard]

I made a nice size nuc up and added the queen. Its been a week since queen was added. I looked today to see her. She was accepted. Shes walking around. Now i added 2 nice frames of bees and capped brood. Today i notiiced that probably 2/3 of the bees left and went back to the mogher hive. Will this brood emerge with little bees inside hive or should ai add bees now. I wanted to add bees but after the brood emerges. So whats the best step.

 

[JWPalmer]

Would need to know what the "nice size nuc" consisted of originally. The bees on the capped brood that you added later were probably not nurse bees and they simply went back to their own hive. Do you have enough bees in the nuc to cover the brood? If not, shake a frame of bees off of OPEN brood. These are the nurse bees that have not yet oriented to a hive. They will stay. Once the capped brood starts to emerge, you do not need to add bees.

 

[Billboard]

Well that would make sense. The bees on the frames were not nurse bees. The frames looked good. Football shape in the middle with capped brood and pollen and honey on the outside of the brood. I guess i really wasnt paying attention when i was pulling frames out. Ill go thru the hives and steal the nurse bees from the biggest hive. If im taking from a different hive is there a chance the new bees will fight and try to kill the queen? Ive added bees before and i used 1:1 with vanilla extract in it. Works good.

 

[JWPalmer]

The nurse bees won't fight. You can take a shake out of two different hives so as not to deplete one hive. Foragers on the other hand will, so make sure you are getting just the nurse bees. One trick is to shake the bees into a 5 gal bucket first. The ones that fly away are mostly foragers. The ones crawling up the sides of the bucket are the nurse bees. Tap the bucket on the ground and pour the bees into the nuc.

 

[Billboard]

The nurse bees won't fight. You can take a shake out of two different hives so as not to deplete one hive. Foragers on the other hand will, so make sure you are getting just the nurse bees. One trick is to shake the bees into a 5 gal bucket first. The ones that fly away are mostly foragers. The ones crawling up the sides of the bucket are the nurse bees. Tap the bucket on the ground and pour the bees into the nuc.

Wow that sounds real cool. I never heard of that one. Definitely will try it. Thanks for that one. I will definitely take bees from the strongest hives. Thanks. So a good time to do this im guessing would be late morning or mid day, when the foragers are out.