[nwfloridabeegirl]

Hey all....new beekeeper here.....I have 1 package of bees a month old and 3 nucs. One of the nucs has almost filled all 8 frames .... however the package girls have only about 3 frames with eggs, larva and capped brood. Should I take several frames with eggs, larva and capped brood from the strong nuc and put in the weaker colony or should I put a super on the strong nuc? I don't have drawn comb for the super, just foundation.

 

[Mr. Buzzy Bee]

Give the strong nuc a super or another box to fill out. If you don't the nuc will swarm, just like mine did because of my neglect. ( I caught the swarm and hived them and they boomed again). I would leave the package to do it own thing. I had something similar happen with a swarm I caught, so I left it and a couple weeks later they were overcrowded so I moved them a 10 frame box which I later gave to a friend. Hope all goes well. Just for further threads add some pics if you can so we can see the situation better and perhaps point something out that you might have missed.

Mr. Buzzy

 

[Vance G]

equalizing before the flow is a good thing to do. If you are on your main flow for goodness sakes do give your bees more room. First move those outside two frame in between the drawn ones to insure all frames in the bottom box are drawn. Taking brood to equalize three packages out of that 8 frame nuc would really set it back hard. Unless you have a package In trouble I would just give the nuc another box right away. IF you are adding another deep, move a drawn frame up into the middle of the box full of foundation to get the bees working up in the top box. That is really important if you are putting an excluder over the nucs single box. If you are using medium supers over a queen excluder, take one of your drawn frames without brood out of you nuc and put it temporarily in with a package. Place a medium foundation frame in the middle of the brood nest for just two days. It will be well started and probably have eggs lain in the cells. Then you can move it up into a medium box above an excluder and the bees will cross to take care of the eggs. Refill your gap with the frame without bees again that you stored in the package hive. Hope I didn't confuse you too much!