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.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.
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.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?
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.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.