I know many will argue this point. But I have gotten honey from every swarm I have ever captured. In their first year. so the idea that swarms end honey production I do not find true. that it reduces honey production is.
I use 5 frame nucs. they are heavily management intensive. Think about this. One frame of brood emerging produces enough bees to cover 2 to three frames in a hive. In my nucs I only have 5 frames and two of them are supposed to be honey frames.
Suppose I start a nuc with only enough bees to cover a single frame. it will take them at least 21 days to rear a frame of brood. but when that brood emerges the nuc will suddenly and almost over night be 80% full. This then gives the colony enough bees to cover 4 fraems. increasing the brood nest and in three weeks this will be a colony with enough brood ready to emerge to cover 16 frames.
Now nothing works by the numbers btu it does give you some idea of what a single frame of capped brood means for your management of a 5 frame colony.
The first thing I do to eleveate some of this rapid changes that can happen is I keep 5 over 5 or even 5 frame nucs stacked 3 boxes tall. This way I simply remove whole 5 frame boxes as needed and give them new empty ones.
So here is sort of a break down of how I manage 5 frame nucs. I start them with two fraems of bees and a queen. this queen can then lay about a frame of brood. I let these emerge and fill the nuc to near full. This results in the queen being able to lay 3 to 4 frames full of brood. It is then I take all but one frame of brood from them. knowing them back to about two frames of bees and a frame of brood. let them build up and the queen will again produce that 3 to 4 frames of brood.
Since I let a nuc have at least 10 fraems and in some cases 15. I let that second round of brood emerge. this allows the queen to lay in ten fraems. it is then I start removing entire boxes. It has the same overall effect. a colony that is made weak allowed to rebuild only to be made weak again.
I do not consider this the most productive method of managing a nuc but for me it is the mot doable. Otherwise managing a nuc so that the queen can always lay at her maximum capacity would be the most productive. My queens consistently show me they can lay 12 to 14 frames of brood. I am not going to try and manage nucs with 15 frames of brood in a continual basis. might as well just make full size hives out of them and do the same sort of robbing them regularly sort of thing.
I have seen many claims that the same number of bees in a single hive in comparison to that number in two hives. the single hive will produce more honey per bee. At the very least this causes me to think that stronger hives are of greater benefit per bee than weaker ones. making up strong hives is the very reason I even consider keeping nucs. nucs absorb the unproductive aspect of an apiary. Leaving production hives to be more productive. For example say something goes wrong in a production colony and it's population declines. this weakness is then made up by nucs. they suffer the ill effects of reduced population and the production colony returns to productivity. The nuc can then take all the time necessary to recover with no consequence to the production of the apiary.
If it becomes a case where the nucs produce more than is necessary. they sell readily and new ones can be made as needed. I do not find the same is true for full size hives.
I use 5 frame nucs. they are heavily management intensive. Think about this. One frame of brood emerging produces enough bees to cover 2 to three frames in a hive. In my nucs I only have 5 frames and two of them are supposed to be honey frames.
Suppose I start a nuc with only enough bees to cover a single frame. it will take them at least 21 days to rear a frame of brood. but when that brood emerges the nuc will suddenly and almost over night be 80% full. This then gives the colony enough bees to cover 4 fraems. increasing the brood nest and in three weeks this will be a colony with enough brood ready to emerge to cover 16 frames.
Now nothing works by the numbers btu it does give you some idea of what a single frame of capped brood means for your management of a 5 frame colony.
The first thing I do to eleveate some of this rapid changes that can happen is I keep 5 over 5 or even 5 frame nucs stacked 3 boxes tall. This way I simply remove whole 5 frame boxes as needed and give them new empty ones.
So here is sort of a break down of how I manage 5 frame nucs. I start them with two fraems of bees and a queen. this queen can then lay about a frame of brood. I let these emerge and fill the nuc to near full. This results in the queen being able to lay 3 to 4 frames full of brood. It is then I take all but one frame of brood from them. knowing them back to about two frames of bees and a frame of brood. let them build up and the queen will again produce that 3 to 4 frames of brood.
Since I let a nuc have at least 10 fraems and in some cases 15. I let that second round of brood emerge. this allows the queen to lay in ten fraems. it is then I start removing entire boxes. It has the same overall effect. a colony that is made weak allowed to rebuild only to be made weak again.
I do not consider this the most productive method of managing a nuc but for me it is the mot doable. Otherwise managing a nuc so that the queen can always lay at her maximum capacity would be the most productive. My queens consistently show me they can lay 12 to 14 frames of brood. I am not going to try and manage nucs with 15 frames of brood in a continual basis. might as well just make full size hives out of them and do the same sort of robbing them regularly sort of thing.
I have seen many claims that the same number of bees in a single hive in comparison to that number in two hives. the single hive will produce more honey per bee. At the very least this causes me to think that stronger hives are of greater benefit per bee than weaker ones. making up strong hives is the very reason I even consider keeping nucs. nucs absorb the unproductive aspect of an apiary. Leaving production hives to be more productive. For example say something goes wrong in a production colony and it's population declines. this weakness is then made up by nucs. they suffer the ill effects of reduced population and the production colony returns to productivity. The nuc can then take all the time necessary to recover with no consequence to the production of the apiary.
If it becomes a case where the nucs produce more than is necessary. they sell readily and new ones can be made as needed. I do not find the same is true for full size hives.