[johng]

I was recently given two double mating nucs. (each box has two separate hives) My question is how long can you keep a queen in one? If I make a hive queenless and take those queen cells out and put them in the mating nuc, once the queens hatch Can I keep them in it until later on in the summer? Then requeen some of my hives later in summer. That way I can go into winter with young queens, Like Mr. Imirie talks about in the pink pages.

 

[habutti]

It depends on management, if the queens mate properly it will not take them long to have those frames in the mating nucs covered with brood, which can lead to a crowded condition and also those mating nucs if not located properly can heat up in summer. All of these conditions are perfect for a swarm and you will end up right where you started. So to answer your question, yes it is doable, but then again your management needs to be good. I would rather use the mating nuc for that purpose - to have the queen mate; once you get a glance of her brood pattern and you are satisfied, I would move her to a nuc box and manage her there.
Good luck!

 

[johng]

Thanks, thats kind of what I was thinking. And I guess it would be hard to just move the brood or bees out of the mating nuc cause the frames are smaller. Thanks, again John