Apidea

[Bugfan]

Hey All

I need to get the newly proven queen from the Apidea into a nuke. What’s the best way to proceed?

Should I give them a frame of brood to help them along?

Should I give them drawn comb only?

What to do with the sealed brood in the apidea?

Whatever happens, I will feed them!

Thanks again guys

 

[Mike a]

Do you want to raise any more queens this year?

If not I would wire the apidea frames into one of the empty nuc frames similar to this by using a simple loop of wire
and add a second cross beam for the other frames if they will fit your frame type.

If you have some clean drawn comb put two in but use a dummy board on the outside of three frames until they expand enough to put in another frame. Just be mindful if the weather changes they need to keep the temperature in the nuc constant and it will be hard work for a small colony even with dummy boards.

Only feed small amounts.

 

[Bugfan]

great, will try it

Thanks again

 

[m100]

If not I would wire the apidea frames into one of the empty nuc frames

Tried that, twice! Even with a couple of frames worth the bees really struggle to maintain brood temperature.

Easiest way is to make a simple frame out of 3/4" square timber to go round the perimeter of the apidea, put the frame on a crownboard above the porter escape holes slide out the floor from the apidea and place it into the recess. The bees will work downwards onto the frames in the body of the full sized hive (or preferably a nuc) Hold the apidea onto the main hive with a transport strap.

In a few weeks the queen will be laying below and you can put a piece of queen excluder below the apidea. Eventually all the brood will have emerged and you can uncap the frames and let the bees to rob the honey out (empty super above brood box, then a crownboard, then another super with the apidea frames, and then the roof.