[mattp]

I've set up some mating nucs and some have too many bees and some have not enough bees. I have temp queen in them, so I was wondering if it's okay to just shake bees from one box to the other? I know if you do that with queen right colonies, you'll have real problems. But with the temp queen the smell should be the the same. Is the step of spraying them with sugar water necessary (I'll probably want to do it to keep them from being so "flighty").
I know I can just put capped brood in the weak nucs, but I also want to reduce the numbers in the overcrowded ones.
Thanks

 

[BroncoVol74]

I would first try swapping the position of the weak hive with the strong hive. There may be enough foragers in the strong hive that will return to the weak nuc to balance it out.

 

[mattp]

I would first try swapping the position of the weak hive with the strong hive. There may be enough foragers in the strong hive that will return to the weak nuc to balance it out.

That's a great idea! I'll just swap places and all the foragers from the strong boxes will go to the weak boxes, problem solved. Thanks.

 

[Saltybee]

You can move frames and bees around quite freely. You can shake bees in front of a hive. The bees know the difference between a lost bee and an invader. They accept orphans / dropins very readily. Moving the queen by mistake, now that hurts your queen count.
Swapping mating nucs is a good plan, swapping full hives gets heavy. Simpler to move frames with bees to balance hives.

 

[mattp]

You can move frames and bees around quite freely. You can shake bees in front of a hive. The bees know the difference between a lost bee and an invader. They accept orphans / dropins very readily. Moving the queen by mistake, now that hurts your queen count.
Swapping mating nucs is a good plan, swapping full hives gets heavy. Simpler to move frames with bees to balance hives.

Thanks, that gives even more options. My boxes are 8 frame deeps with a divider. Last year I tried nucs with a divider and 2 frames on each side, but there wasn't enough room, and I was worried about rolling the queen every time I removed a frame. I'm liking the new setup there's plenty of room now. I've even got the boxes stacked to use space more efficiently.

To your point, yeah the 8 frame boxes are a little heavier, but not nearly as heavy as a deep full of honey. But it's definitely easier to move frames around. I may end up doing a little of both.