Apidea to nuc?

[nonstandard]

After my queen disappearance and mating problems last year I have bought an apidea mini nuc with the intention of raising at least one queen as a spare as well as using it as a learning experience.

I realise that should I be successful, any raised queens will be to an extent a time limited items. Should I also be successful in not killing an established queen is it feasible to move the queen and bees from the apidea to a standard nuc box and build them up into a viable colony before the winter.

I’m guessing that I would need to add some brood and bees to aid the process.

 

[newportbuzz]

i have seen an adaptitation of a standard national frame to take 6 apidea frames. you would need to buy the super for the apidea which allows you to have 5 more frames in the apidea to be able to do it tho. however 3 goes quite well in a nat super frame.
lots of insulation was what i was advised

 

[Poly Hive]

I did this a few years ago although a mini nuc not an Apedia, and used a made up insulated super built for five frames. I dummied it to just two frames for a start, remember they are very small in numbers, and gradually built it up so that they were on five super frames, and from that to a full super, and then the big jump to a brood box. Takes time but it's fun to see it come on.

PH

 

[nonstandard]

Thanks PH, I guess I could take a brood frame nuc and dummy it out bottom and sides with the knauf board or similar to take two or three super frames and see how we go.

I did find a thread on another forum where the suggestion was to remove the apidea feeder and insert the extra frames, then open the bottom and place it over the feed hole of an empty nuc and let them build up and expand into the nuc. My thoughts were that there would still be issues with maintaining the temperature.

 

[RoofTops]

I would make up a nuc using frames and bees from another hive and then introduce the queen to it. You can then simply leave the bees in the Apidea and like as not they may surprise you and raise a queen of their own which you can then try and take through the winter in the Apidea. She probably won't be the best queen but if you find you have a queenless colony in the spring then any queen is better than none. This would be my choice. I did it to 5 mini-nucs last year and only one did not produce a queen.

Alternatively, after removing the queen, stand the new nuc on the site of the Apidea and put the Apidea on top of it. On the next warm day move the Apidea to one side and the foragers from it will find their way back into the nuc. Repeat again after a week or so if you want.