[Tim KS]

I'm new to bkeeeping, so if this is a stupid question just say so.

I bought what was supposed to be a 1 deep working hive and a couple of nucs (already into deep hives) at the beginning of May....just enough to really get me hooked on bee keeping. The nucs seem to be doing fine, but the working hive seems to be slower getting started.

Now I'd like more hives. Can I take one frame of capped brood that includes some new eggs from a stronger hive, a frame of pollen & honey and pop them into a nuc box and hope they queen themselves? What are the chances of success in doing this? My only concern is to be sure and leave the old queen at home..... ?

 

[Wolfer]

You can do that. You chance of success is near 0 possibly lower.

It takes lots of bees the right age to feed a queen cell until its capped. Once capped two frames of bees can keep it up to temp until hatching.

I've built lots of two and three frame nucs and let them raise their own queen. They all failed before fall.

Five full frames of nurse bees can raise you a good queen but your best queens will be built by the hive.

Take your old queen and three frames of mixed brood and put in a nuc. Make sure the hive has frames with eggs to make a queen from.

I use the calendar at (the bee yard) to tell me when to do what. If I only had resources for one hive then I wouldent do anything. If the hive is a double deep full of bees you can take extra cells and start more nucs.

Raising your own queens for splits is really easy. It's something every beek should know. Once you have a few hives then experiment some if you like. This is how you learn.
Woody Roberts

 

[Blessed Farms]

I've done what you are saying and it has worked. I would shake more nurse bees in from another frame though so that there is plenty of nurse bees. It would have a greater chance if you were to put two brood frames into the nuc.

 

[garyprunty]

I just put three frames of mixed broad,emerging brood, and food in a nuc in as an experiment to see the quality of queen they produce
I did shake in some extra bees
Checked them a couple of days later an they had one capped cell and on almost capped they might have had more a few more days and she'll emerge then we'll see if she's any good

 

[Wolfer]

My weak nucs all built a queen that got mated and layed eggs. They were never aggressive egg layers though even when boosted with bees. They continued to get weaker until they were robbed or SHB took them over.
Did this over two or three year span ( I'm a slow learner ) not one single hive saw frost.

 

[Tim KS]

Can these frames of brood & food come from several different hives, or is it better to get them all from one strong hive? And is there any advantage to starting in a nuc box rather than a deep hive box?

 

[cdevier]

Wolfer - I have had the same experience as you. I thought that the problem was me doing something wrong.
Charlie

 

[gunter62]

Tim,
Your best bet would be to find the queen in your best hive and move her and 2 or 3 frames into a nuc. Your good hive will make a nice new queen, and the current queen will quickly populate your nuc. If the new queen fails, you can recombine the two.

 

[Wolfer]

Can these frames of brood & food come from several different hives, or is it better to get them all from one strong hive? And is there any advantage to starting in a nuc box rather than a deep hive box?

I personally like to make nucs from two or three hives or more. It hurts the parent hive less.

The advantage to a nuc box is a smaller area they have to control the temp and defend while their waiting on a queen to be born, get mated, start laying. Her first brood will hatch 21 days later. At this time the nuc will explode.

They should need to be in a full size in about six weeks or a little over if they raise their own queen.
If the queen goes in the nuc she will need a full size very shortly. If the weathers warm I just put her in a full size to start with if I can give her five frames.

 

[Saltybee]

My weak nucs all built a queen that got mated and layed eggs. They were never aggressive egg layers though even when boosted with bees. They continued to get weaker until they were robbed or SHB took them over.
Did this over two or three year span ( I'm a slow learner ) not one single hive saw frost.

You are not alone, bees drift to the winners. Moving nucs to the other side of the tree line and out of the flight path was helping until the pesticide wiped me out, so I can't say for sure that it is enough, but it was a definite help.

 

[Saltybee]

The best way to make queen cells with the fewest resources is to disrupt the existing hives as little as possible. Stretch split your nucs. Raise brood above an excluder and give a top entrance. The hive remains intact, queen right and the bees decide how to best balance the resources. Very little disruption and the age spread is right. You can leave the hive intact until the new queen is laying or split before the hatch. That is at least 3 weeks more without breaking up the hive. You do not have the bees for multiple queens anyway, so keep it simple.

 

[dphillipm]

do you have SHB? I can't do it with one frame here in Al. I think I would give them more feed than they can eat, with some "bee healthy" mixed in. Then get after they are running over with bees, and that queen is laying good, I would split them in half. I would play it safe a the beginning then after you have a few extra hives, then you can experiment.