A Little Advice Needed

[iball]

I've just hived my first nuc yesterday, the weather could have been better so it was a case of a quick look and move them over.

Of the 6 frames the 2 outer most were heavy with stores, lots of colourful pollen and nice capped and uncapped honey. The other 4 frames had sealed and open brood.

I moved these over and filled the deep with foundation on DN4s. A gallon of 1 to 1 feed up top and reduced the entrance to the small opening placed in front of the foundation. My thinking is that the bees will have to walk over the new frames to get to the brood area and so 'find it'.

The queston I have is that the nuc was on DN1 frames manually spaced and I would like to get this onto DN4 asap.

I was thinking of removing the inner most store frame and feeding it back to them via the feeder, which is a 2 compartment plastic Millar type, replacing this single frame with a new DN4. This would remove the stores 'barrier' between the existing brood area and the new foundation encouraging herself to move over. Once she's laying on the new comb I would then sacrifice the old comb in about 2 weeks when the capped brood has hatched and replace with new foundation.

Alternatively I just let them get on with it and assess in 6 days time.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Poly Hive]

Your first objective is to get the Hoffman frames drawn out.

so why put them behind the stored frame?

I would configure your BB like this.

Stores frame, foundation, four brood, foundation, stores, and rest foundation.

When you have 6 of brood put another foundation in the middle, (+1) and work it like that until all your frames are drawn out.

Assuming a National box that will give you 6 and five. You could put the six above an excluder and dummy them so as to allow them to hatch out and keep adding in more foundation to the BB with the queen below.

Or there are literally many other ways to do it but that is one that will work for you.

PH

 

[iball]

PH,
Thanks for the advice.

I popped my head in yesterday and moved three frames aound so the stores are no longer in the way.

It's funny, having hived the nuc on Saturday afternoon I woke up about 3am on Sunday thinking what I'd done wasn't quite right.

I now have to be patient and wait until the weekend before I go back in, but it's difficult!!

Cheers
Ian

 

[Hebeegeebee]

iball,

Congratulatios on your new colony of bees!

As you have done so far ... avoid the temptation to 'fiddle', I know it is difficult. Bees have been keping bees for a lot longer than humans!

 

[iball]

......Bees have been keping bees for a lot longer than humans!.......

At the moment I see myself as a keeper of bees, once I've got them through the winter I'll consider becoming a beekeeper.

Ian

 

[lady malarkey]

We hived our first nuc over the weekend, too, on the Sunday. It's a huge temptation to go and have a peek to see how they are doing, but am contenting myself with the zoom on a camcorder and filming from the greenhouse, where I can see masses of activity and foragers returning with pollen like it was going out of fashion! Amazing creatures. Of course, they're less enthusiastic today because of the rain, but I'm really looking forward to the weekend when I can have proper look.

Rather worryingly, the chap I got the nuc from said, 'Leave them alone for two to three weeks.' But when I hived them, I found a charged queen cell, luckily still uncapped, so I pinched that out just in case. Don't know if I did the right thing, but my immediate thought was that if I'd left the bees for 2 to 3 weeks as advised, I might have had a swarm on my hands.

 

[Andre cardona]

In mite of been a play cup

 

[rae]

When you have 6 of brood put another foundation in the middle, (+1) and work it like that until all your frames are drawn out.

Do you mean splitting the brood nest with a frame of foundation? I always thought that was not a good idea....but it might be why I have trouble getting them to draw all the frames sometimes.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I found a charged queen cell, luckily still uncapped, so I pinched that out just in case. Don't know if I did the right thing, but my immediate thought was that if I'd left the bees for 2 to 3 weeks as advised, I might have had a swarm on my hands.

yes, i agree, you did right, better check if they are honey bound ( too much feeding) so next inspection see where they are putting the sugar, if it is in the brood then stop feeding for at least a week

 

[oliver90owner]

lady malarkey,

As I see it, from the screen of my 'puter: You need to know the way the nuc was made up.

It seems to me that this may be a manufactured nuc, or a swarmed queen, and the bees could be trying to supercede her. The immediate thought is that one cell on it's own will be a supercedure cell. You don't say where the cell was, or it's type.

A five frame nuc should not swarm immediately.
Your docile queen, if it is, may be changed shortly - and you will not know the temperament of the replacement.

Is the queen marked? Clipped?

Your supplier may well be supplying good nucs for all I know - and I wouldn't like to rubbish anyone without a good handle on the facts, but I have some doubts about the origins of the bees until some further info is furbished.

It can make beekeeping much harder for a beginner when faced with unexpected things like this.

Another option is that the queen has been damaged in some way (maybe as little as a damaged leg).

The likely outcome, if they are superceding her, is that they will succeed one way or another. Not definite, but likely.

I think you should at least be reporting this to your supplier. He may well rectify the situation if it continues, as I suspect it may. Depends really on how much this may have cost. Gift horses and mouths etc. comes to mind.

Alternatively, you may have done the right thing and they will not try to build any more queen cells. Cross your fingers and hope..... If they supercede you will have a much depleted nuc by the time the new queen is up and running, if you understand what I mean. Value-for-money of the transaction would be reduced by a factor.

Regards, RAB