[johng]

Yesterday was a very exciting and nerve racking day at the same time. I made up 30 5frame nucs, grafted the queen cells 10 days ago.
1. Get all your boxes ready ahead of time. Frames, boxes, tops, and bottoms.
2. Try not to keep the hives open very long, I started to have some robbing about 1/2 way through until I realized what was going on. I then started making sure the entrances were taped up and I put a lid on them as quick as I could. That seemed to help out.
3. Make sure you have your feeders ready to go. I got caught on this one. I thought I had plenty of jars until I started filling them up and realized I was short and had to start looking around for some more. Ended up having to use some pint jars until I can get some more of the big ones.
4. Make sure you have some kind on hive stands set up at the yard you are going to move the nucs to. I had to scourge around on this one too for some old pallets. I didn't want anything more permanent since they will only be there long enough for the queens to mate and get established. I've never made more than two or three splits at a time before so this was a first for me. I know you guys are laughing at some of my rookie mistakes.

 

[tommysnare]

how many hives did you pull all of those nucs from ? did you just split the hives out completely or pull a couple frames from full hives ? just asking because i would like to offer nucs in the future and have only made a few starts for myself in the past .

 

[johng]

Yes, I made most of them by completely breaking down the hives into nucs. I left the queen with a couple frames of brood in the original spot and moved the nucs to a different yard. I'm not sure how many hives it took 6-7 I think. I had a couple double deeps that I was able to get 6 nucs out of. I tried to put two good full frames of brood in each nuc.

 

[Calbears94]

Yes, I made most of them by completely breaking down the hives into nucs. I left the queen with a couple frames of brood in the original spot and moved the nucs to a different yard. I'm not sure how many hives it took 6-7 I think. I had a couple double deeps that I was able to get 6 nucs out of. I tried to put two good full frames of brood in each nuc.

I just got through building 5 nucs and interested in the same...I have swarm traps out but if that fails then I might split too.... I have very active hive with 2 10 frame deeps... Would it be safe to split...

 

[tommyt]

i just got through building 5 nucs and interested in the same...i have swarm traps out but if that fails then i might split too.... I have very active hive with 2 10 frame deeps... would it be safe to split...

yes

 

[Calbears94]

Could I move over 3 frames and leave 2 empties for them to build up.... That would help with swarm control on my hive too.....

 

[johng]

Yes, that will work. But, if your main purpose is to help with swarmming you are better off moving the queen with two frames of brood and let the donor hive make a new queen or give them a queen cell, or mated queen if you have one. By doing that you simulate a swarm leaving from the hive, and it is less likely that the new young queen will swarm. Doing a split like that at the start of the flow will often keep them from swarmming and they may even make more honey because it frees up some of the bees to be able to forage instead of caring for brood until the new queen gets mated and starts laying.

 

[Calbears94]

Thanks for advice and I I'll give that a try.... I just need to find the queen...

 

[JWChesnut]

CalBears,
Where I am in coastal Cal, I try to delay the virgin mating until late March at the earliest. The reason being it stays marine cool (and sometimes foggy), and the drones don't fly well until its warm. When the drones aren't flying you get a lot of failed new queens due to mating problems.

Your experience may vary, as East Bay is warmer than my oceanside location, and just getting inland a range of hills makes a big difference. If you have a choice, make your mating yard the warmest, most windless spot, with the least fog.

As you noticed, the bees are ready to swarm (especially this year) before the temperature is right for them. There's a delicate March period where you want them to build to split, but don't want the queen cells to appear to early.

 

[David LaFerney]

Johng - getting all of the gear squared away is often the biggest part of starting something new. It sounds like these are mating nucs? If so the next round will be a lot easier. Good luck. It should be fun.

 

[Calbears94]

CalBears,
Where I am in coastal Cal, I try to delay the virgin mating until late March at the earliest. The reason being it stays marine cool (and sometimes foggy), and the drones don't fly well until its warm. When the drones aren't flying you get a lot of failed new queens due to mating problems.

Your experience may vary, as East Bay is warmer than my oceanside location, and just getting inland a range of hills makes a big difference. If you have a choice, make your mating yard the warmest, most windless spot, with the least fog.

As you noticed, the bees are ready to swarm (especially this year) before the temperature is right for them. There's a delicate March period where you want them to build to split, but don't want the queen cells to appear to early.

I appreciate all the advice and I am learning a ton... My hive swarmed in April last year so late march should give me ample time... The weather is warm here 70's most of the time but raining for the next few days and still 60's....