It is best to equalize the resources in both hives. You only get as much as you give - give a little expect very little.
The newest issue
So, we started with 2 nucs on April 19th. One is going gangbusters. We added another super and thats begining to fill up. The 2nd not too good. The 2nd at one point had a capped queen cell. We searched and searched and could not find a queen. Fine, we checked the hive again, and the queen cell was open at the bottom, but still couldn't find a queen. We checked the hive again, no queen cell, no queen, no eggs, no larvae, just empty drawn frames. We take a frame with capped brood from the strong hive and place it in the weaker one. We brush off most of the bees to make sure the queen from the strong hive doesn't go into the weaker one. So, me thinks, time to order a queen. I order a Minnesota hygenic queen and she arrives in good shape in her little queen box with a few attendants. We go out to the weak hive and I say we have to check for a queen one more time. And guess what? Theres a queen bigger than life. Maybe the queen cell that we found opened finally paid off? I don't know, I do know that we didn't transfer the queen from the strong hive. My husband thinks we should just remove the top brood box from the strong hive and place the Minnesota hygenic queen in it. I'm thinking just remove a couple of frames of brood, an empty drawn out frame from the weak hive and a couple of empty frames and put the Minnesota queen in it and start a 5 frame nuc. Which is the best option in your opinion? Or do both of these ideas sound bad?
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Ok....I'm sure you can tell I'm new especially if you have read some of my other posts. Could you be a little more specific?
I just had the same issue. I didn't want to not use the new queen, so I took one frame brood & bee from the week hive & two from the stronger + to empty frames . Made sure no queens came with them & put the caged queen in with the now new Nuc. I'll feed what they will take.
The newly found queen I'd leave so if she is breeding she will come back where she belongs. If the hive never lays then combine in about one month or try to let them raise a new queen from eggs, not brood!
The newly found queen I'd leave so if she is breeding she will come back where she belongs. If the hive never lays then combine in about one month or try to let them raise a new queen from eggs, not brood!
While I don't like to use a strong or productive hive to make a nuc, I think you have the plan. Take the brood you need as well as some honey and pollen and put them in a 5 frame nuc along with your purchased queen. Feed both the new nuc and the weak hive with the new queen to get them both going and to build comb.I'm thinking just remove a couple of frames of brood, an empty drawn out frame from the weak hive and a couple of empty frames and put the Minnesota queen in it and start a 5 frame nuc.
You have plenty of time to raise them both up to be strong enough to go into winter. If for some reason, either of them falters, you can combine the two, keeping the queen from the stronger and overwinter that hive. Other than taking only the essentials necessary to produce a promising nuc, I would not weaken a booming hive in the interests of some sort of equalization.
Wayne
I would go with your five frame nuc plan. If you feed them some and the queen is good they should build up good. You can make decisions on whether you need to combine or not in the fall.
You need to learn to be patient with bees. After a queencell emerges, it can take over 2 weeks to get a mated and laying queen and virgins are hard to find at times.
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