Here in Michigan, early May finds us moving the queen from a winter survivor hive into a support nuc, giving way for the now queenless parent hive to rear a new young queen in time for the June honey flow.
The support nuc (Michael Palmer style) which has the older queen can now be used to produce frames of brood in order to boost weaker hives in time for the honey flow. To me, this sounds like a good insurance policy to have. The question then comes up as to when is the proper time to let the insurance lapse and replace the older queen found in the support nuc in order to build up a strong 4x4x4 support nuc to go through the impending winter with?
Would a late July dearth be the ideal time to replace the support nuc queen? In time for the support nuc to produce a good young queen to supply strength to itself in order to take good advantage of the September and October goldenrod and aster flow for winter?
The logistics of when and how to re-queen can become bewildering at times!
The support nuc (Michael Palmer style) which has the older queen can now be used to produce frames of brood in order to boost weaker hives in time for the honey flow. To me, this sounds like a good insurance policy to have. The question then comes up as to when is the proper time to let the insurance lapse and replace the older queen found in the support nuc in order to build up a strong 4x4x4 support nuc to go through the impending winter with?
Would a late July dearth be the ideal time to replace the support nuc queen? In time for the support nuc to produce a good young queen to supply strength to itself in order to take good advantage of the September and October goldenrod and aster flow for winter?
The logistics of when and how to re-queen can become bewildering at times!