I have 8 hives full hives, but would like to make 2-3 nucs for emergency situations. I get how to make the nucs, but my questions are how to maintain them as actual nucs. The goal would be for these to provide a queen or frames of brood to struggling hives if they need it.
How often should you circulate the frames from the nucs into the main hives to keep the nucs from outgrowing their space? Do beeks run double deep nuc boxes to give them room? I've read about overwintering them, but is it really successful? It would be nice to have that extra queen/brood for early spring queen problems. And finally, for hives that have swarmed, are you successful in combining one of these emergency nucs with the swarmed hive for an immediate queen and bee boost in numbers before the flow to still get honey production out of it? Or can you just forget any honey production from a swarmed hive?
Thanks
msBehaven
How often should you circulate the frames from the nucs into the main hives to keep the nucs from outgrowing their space? Do beeks run double deep nuc boxes to give them room? I've read about overwintering them, but is it really successful? It would be nice to have that extra queen/brood for early spring queen problems. And finally, for hives that have swarmed, are you successful in combining one of these emergency nucs with the swarmed hive for an immediate queen and bee boost in numbers before the flow to still get honey production out of it? Or can you just forget any honey production from a swarmed hive?
Thanks
msBehaven