Apidea to Nuc

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Heather

Queen Bee
Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Messages
4,131
Reaction score
128
Location
Newick, East Sussex
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
6
Your method ideas please.
Apidea bursting at seams needs to be brought on to a Nuc. For the queen to work up, how have you placed the Nuc to be above the small apidea...with no gaps, and to be secure.
 
At the end of the queen rearing season I shake all the bees out from the Apidea's in front of my existing nucs so they beg their way in. Any brood or stores in the Apidea frames are placed above the crown board with the feeder hole open- the bees in the nuc look after the brood and move the stores down. Apidea frames are all nice and clean for winter storage,
 
You can 'newspaper unite' an Apidea to a bigger hive by putting the Apidea over newspaper over a hole in the coverboard - and pulling the Apidea floor open (but not completely out!)
One should arrange some sort of surrounding protective eke...
 
I paper united an apidea to a 3 frame nuc, paynes poly nuc, and used a couple of ekes to house the apidea. Made a 'crownboard' for the nuc, with a hole cut out the size of the floor of the apidea. Once the queen was laying in the nuc a piece of plastic excluder stops her getting back up into the apidea. I removed the apidea once the brood had emerged. A bit of a palaver, but it works.
 
I brought it on from a beakerful of bees with my own bred queen so reluctant to join.. want to see it grow individually.
I can get it through the winter as it has 6 apidea frames of brood.. will do graft onto 3 top bars into 3 frame Nuc with dummies. It has a couple of months to develop more before settling into Autumn mode.
Just an interesting exercise for me.
 

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