[beekeeper1756]

Did a huge cutout yesterday on the tractor tire. I left lots and lots of old comb and thousands of very calm nursery bees. Can I gather up the nursery bees and start a hive with them if I only put them on wax foundation? I don't anticipate any brood comb left as I got that yesterday.

Would it help them to stay if I did get some of the old comb and put it in frames and then requeen as quickly as possible?

Thanks for your input in advance.

 

[mythomane]

Why are you leaving any bees there at all? Why are you not cutting out all the comb? You should find a mentor in your area to give you a hand. I think DRUR is kinda close.

 

[franktrujillo]

gather them up and put them with the hive.

 

[ehallspqr]

If you can capture them and put them into the capture hive you just started that would be the best option. If this was a huge colony to start with then a second small hive may be a possibility. You could gather what bees are left along with preferably some brood comb from the old tire nest and stick it in a NUC or divided hive and add queen. Hopefully you'll have enough foragers among those bees to make this work. Then you'd probably have to nurse this NUC along for the summer, but yes it just might work.