Too Late to Make Nuc's?
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I made nucs around this time last year, and they overwintered fine. I did feed them heavily and they had five frames fully drawn out. I used mated queens and were overwintered in five frame boxes. That being said I am sure the weather/winters here are milder than in Kansas.
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BoonROTO,
How many colonies do you have now that you plan to take resources from?
I think if you have several strong hives you plan on using to piece together a couple of nucs it should work just fine, with mated queens and supplemental feeding.
If you are starting the nucs from scratch with little drawn comb or brood to begin with, it might be difficult at this time of year.
How many colonies do you have now that you plan to take resources from?
I think if you have several strong hives you plan on using to piece together a couple of nucs it should work just fine, with mated queens and supplemental feeding.
If you are starting the nucs from scratch with little drawn comb or brood to begin with, it might be difficult at this time of year.
I'm a little south of you, near Springfield MO. I start nucs every year at the first of August and let them raise their own queen. I build the nucs strong so by the time the queen is laying ( around labor day ) the hatched brood will overflow a nuc.
I put them in a 10 frame deep and may give them a frame of capped brood and a frame or two of honey plus some drawn comb if I have it. I feed all they will take until the weather gets too cold.
I've never had a problem overwintering these here. I do feed in the spring as soon as temps get in the 50s during the daytime. Usually sometime in Febuary.
I put them in a 10 frame deep and may give them a frame of capped brood and a frame or two of honey plus some drawn comb if I have it. I feed all they will take until the weather gets too cold.
I've never had a problem overwintering these here. I do feed in the spring as soon as temps get in the 50s during the daytime. Usually sometime in Febuary.
I have eight hives, four are going strong. I see several people mention using mated queens. Would it be wise to remove the queen from a strong hive to start the nuc and let the strong hive raise a new one or should I just start the Nuc with a frame of young brood? I plan on using two frames of brood in each nuc with one frame of stores. Two empty frames of undrawn foundation. I am open to any suggestions.
I've raised several queens with two frames of nurse bees. None of them were worth a dime. Four frames of eggs and open brood loaded with attending nurse bees is my minimum to build their own queen.
Two frames of bees and a mated queen are not likely to survive the winter. They just can't build up fast enough.
This has been my experience, yours may be different.
Two frames of bees and a mated queen are not likely to survive the winter. They just can't build up fast enough.
This has been my experience, yours may be different.
I would not start a nuc up this time of year with any frames of foundation in it. Drawn combs only, unless you give a mated queen when you make them up, but even then, I'd not give more than one frame of foundation, and would be feeding to help them get it drawn. This time of year, I make nucs up stronger than I would a couple months ago... for the bees way of looking at it, winter is right around the corner and they are concentrating on storing and condensing the brood cluster. Even here in California, I'm feeding, and the bees will draw comb for me with constant feeding thru September, but not much after that.
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If you don't plan on buying mated queens it would be best to have the donor hive raise the new queen, and move the original queen to the nuc. I agree with Ray, minimum foundation is best at this time of year. The nuc needs to be focusing on developing brood and putting up stores, not drawing out comb.
Wolfer, sounds like the formula I was looking for, thanks. I am just north of you (at the Lake of the Ozark), didn't intend on starting nuc this time of year but sort of am.a struggling first year package hive swarmed a week ago. captured it and placed in a 10 framed deep taken from the double deep it came out of, they should do fine we still have mild flow going but rain is now needed. What was left however, no sign of a virgin,yet. Added a frame of open brood and eggs from my best layer today, so will probably be raising a queen starting now. both have honey/ pollen/nectar/all drawn comb.
Question- regarding feeding 1:1 sugar, how much will they take? lets say each week. 9about 6 full frames of bees in each half is left).
And feeding heavy before the queen begins laying, will they make room for brood as needed seeing as they likely filled it with syrup?
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I wanted to go into winter with 2 overwintering nucs by splitting an existing hive. On July 10, I pulled the queen from the cell builder hive after checking that there were plenty of eggs, and they made 10+ queen cells that I was able to split between 5 places. The original queen from the cell builder hive went into a 5 frame nuc, like someone else mentioned and that gave the cell builder hive a nice brood break for mite purposes and I didn't have to scour the hive for additional queen cells, the virgin will take care of them. The other existing hive that I used for the bee/comb resources also had their original queen go in a 5 frame nuc box. Some nuc boxes or hives got more drawn frames than others so they are progressing at different rates. One nuc has already been robbed of honey but the queen cells and some worker bees are still left, but a lot of bees died. 2 other mini nucs were set up in case the 2 actual hives don't get mated queens here soon. Queens hopefully hatched today. It's been a learning process and I am getting some more comb drawn out, which was another reason for setting up the 5 frame nucs.
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