[calkal]

I made about 200 successful splits this summer and raised all the queens for them...okay enough bragging. The issue I did not expect is the first round of 40 splits made in early June are slamming and I needed to remove some capped brood with adhering bees (they were already starting to swarm). I thought I would give the brood to other colonies in need but the were all too strong to give them brood. So in my panic I had 15 queens overnighted to my to use up the 30 frames. So my question is, is this my only option? Is there anything else I could or should do with this surplus this late in the year? I am in zone 3.

 

[Gray Goose]

Hi calkal,

I think the question is what to do with excess bees.
It is late season to sell them but maybe you could sell a few.
Also could set them up for winter and sell spring, overwintered NUCs.

If you have too many then cull the worse 5-10% of the queens and combine.

If you are just bragging , then Congrats on the increase.
Hopefully you have the wooden ware to expand the hives as needed.

Did you graft? What breed of bees are you working?

Do let us know how the winter goes, with higher numbers I would think many survive to be used next year for production.
If 100 survive to production, you may need to put together 400-500 supers this winter.

good luck sounds like you had a busy summer.

GG

 

[calkal]

Thanks GG, Not really bragging maybe I would have to save that for next May to see how many make it through the Winter, still quite a bit to be seen through the end of this year (feeding) and early Spring survival.
So I guess buying some queens really is the only option.
Yes I grafted, 6 rounds one each week. These are primarily New World Carnolians from Strachan Apairies. Thanks for the other good ideas.

 

[fieldsofnaturalhoney]

So my question is, is this my only option? Is there anything else I could or should do with this surplus this late in the year?

I guess you are out of drawn frames? If not, why not just add boxes and frames? Lots of people in my neck of the woods would buy just bees and brood to boost weaker colonies. If you have already ordered 15 queens, make those splits bigger?

 

[Michael Palmer]

Two story nucs? Put a box of comb between the two boxes

 

[calkal]

I am keeping all the bees on either 10 deeps or 5 deeps (double nucs) for the winter and possibly for the summer so don't want to add a second, but like you mentioned drawn combs is all gone...they drew about 1000 foundations out this summer.

 

[calkal]

Hi Michael, I am keeping the double nucs in beer coolers 😉 and at the present moment I am unable to expand upwards, I devised the whole system using a top cover as the bottom board and then cutting some wooden ware to fit in where necessary, I will see if I can attach a picture.
But your idea got me to thinking, another option would have been to expand some of those nucleus colonies into a full box , I actually think I could have made that work this year.

 

[Jack Grimshaw]

I would ask what your goal is.
Do you want to sell nucs? Or bees?
Are you building towards becoming a commercial honey producer or pollinator?
When making splits,timing is a determining factor.Early in the season splits can be in a single or more by fall.Later splits will only be 5 frames.
Resource availability can also have an effect on colony size.Do you have a fantastic summer flow or did you feed to keep those Qs laying?

 

[calkal]

Hello Jack, I plan to run about 100 honey producing colonies and sell nucleus colonies. I did not feed any syrup yet this season however I have thrown on protein patties whenever I thought it was necessary. As the queens became mated I move the nucleus colonies out to yards with about 40 of these small colonies per yard so I think they had plenty of resources. It was a good summer and even during our small dearth there seemed to be plenty of food for them to keep building the brood, there was one bit of time mid-end July when I think they actually pulled back a little bit.

 

[Gino45]

Hello Jack, I plan to run about 100 honey producing colonies and sell nucleus colonies. I did not feed any syrup yet this season however I have thrown on protein patties whenever I thought it was necessary.

Well, I'd give this pollen feeding as first reason for swarming. Second would be that they are 'carniolians'.

I can guarantee you that my nucs, which are mostly italian but may have some carniolan in the mix, do not swarm at this time of year. I am not feeding them, and some have become way overcrowded before being transferred to frame boxes.