Advice on looking after my ‘insurance nuc’

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Joined
Aug 6, 2019
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Location
West London
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
6
I made a nuc using a QC from my swarmed hive - frame with QC, brood frame, stores frame, 2 foundation + shook bees in. Didn’t have a nuc so dummied down a brood box with kingspan. Any tips? Do people generally stuff the entrance with grass to keep them in for a couple of days and should I stick a feeder on pretty much right away as they'll be short of foragers. Thanks.
 

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That sounds like you have a total of five frames two of which are foundation, you're bound to loose some of the foragers that got shaken in, I would feed. Have you plenty of drones around ?
 
Make sure they have a frame of food if keeping in the same site DO NOT feed syrup straight away, returning older bees can/do bring the news home. Yes you can block the entrance for a day or so provided they have ventilation and food and it will help stop some returning. Always better to make up a nuc with a frame or so of bees actually in the process of emerging. Ian
 
Thanks for the replies. No shortage of drones around at the minute. Just got back home and they had shoved the grass out already. The brood frame we put in was was older capped brood and so hopefully they will emerge soon. They had a frame of stores so won’t feed until tomorrow.
 

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