[Rick_ Sprague]

I made a NUC from a good hive. All went well for a while. Now the Nuc next to it which is a month older is robbing the baby Nuc and treating it rather harsh. The new Nuc is making queen cells and is a little light in bee population. I'm afraid with all the robbing going on that they won't complete the queen cells. Can I find a good hive, shake in some bees, and move the Nuc away?

 

[psfred]

You should do that, and also close the entrance down to a couple bee widths. If you have a screened bottom or top, you can probably close it off altogether for a while if you have plenty of stores in the new nuc. The bees will be fine if you feed them through the top with a perforated jar cap feeder on a screen (to keep other bees out) inside another box with tight cover.

After a few days the robbers will forget about the nuc, and you can open up to a very small entrance, just large enough for the queen to get in and out of.

Probably better to move it a couple miles away if you can, you can always move it back once the queen is laying. My brother lives about 3 miles away, and a beekeeping buddy is about 12, so we can swap things around any time. Might not be so easy for you.

Peter

 

[Rick_ Sprague]

Thanks Peter. I have been feeding through the top. I will do as you suggest. I guess my sister who lives about 5 miles from here will babysit the bees for a while.

Rick

 

[Santa Caras]

also look up robbing screens here at this site. Easy-money lil screen to make that fits on the front entrance and can help protect your baby nuc. dont leave em on longer than a couple days. Every nuc I ever make in the future will come equipped with one of these!

 

[FlowerPlanter]

Yes I would add more bee and or frames.

You could also switch location with the strong nuc help balance it a bit.

I think of the bee that goes out and robs the smaller hive returns to the old location right after the switch just to give the honey back to the same hive. Then does it again except now flies to the strong hive and returns to the weak hive with honey.

 

[Rick_ Sprague]

I should have thought of that! I have been doing that with splits before. I made 3 splits from a great hive in early June, left them there and moved the parent hive up the hill. Those 3 Nucs filled up fast. I just added a top deep last week. These 3 just exploded with all the extra bees.