Just so everyone knows I am here in the great city of San Antonio TX. I have 11 hives now and had 3 to start the year with.
This is what I have so far... I have 4 hives that are 2 deep. I have 4 hives 1 deep, and 3 nucs- one of which will be a 1 deep soon. I have ordered 11 queens from Mr. Williams, Velbert in OK. What I was trying to figure out is what to do. A couple nucs are new from cut outs and trap outs and seems to be building real good so I wasn't going to requeen these. I was going to take the "extra" 2 queens and make splits to the larger hives and make 2 more nucs. I really need advise if people would do this or do it another way.
How many frames would you put in the nuc? How would you requeeen them all? Would you remove queen a day before shipment arrived? t Instead of making nuc splits would you put them in a deep and let them build there? Is their enough time for the splits the build?
I would like to have at least 15 hives by winter and would like them to build up before winter. We usually live through a mild winter and I can keep the smaller colonies fed through the winter. I would like to leave them in the best situation possible for next spring also.
Other information that might be helpful... The reason I am requeening is because at least half my hives are aggressive. At least 2 of them are not so friendly to deal with. Also, all of the hive are feral with feral queens. This may not be a problem somewhere else but here the Africanized gene make for unfriendly bee keeping.
This is what I have so far... I have 4 hives that are 2 deep. I have 4 hives 1 deep, and 3 nucs- one of which will be a 1 deep soon. I have ordered 11 queens from Mr. Williams, Velbert in OK. What I was trying to figure out is what to do. A couple nucs are new from cut outs and trap outs and seems to be building real good so I wasn't going to requeen these. I was going to take the "extra" 2 queens and make splits to the larger hives and make 2 more nucs. I really need advise if people would do this or do it another way.
How many frames would you put in the nuc? How would you requeeen them all? Would you remove queen a day before shipment arrived? t Instead of making nuc splits would you put them in a deep and let them build there? Is their enough time for the splits the build?
I would like to have at least 15 hives by winter and would like them to build up before winter. We usually live through a mild winter and I can keep the smaller colonies fed through the winter. I would like to leave them in the best situation possible for next spring also.
Other information that might be helpful... The reason I am requeening is because at least half my hives are aggressive. At least 2 of them are not so friendly to deal with. Also, all of the hive are feral with feral queens. This may not be a problem somewhere else but here the Africanized gene make for unfriendly bee keeping.