Artificial Swarming

[ladyrose1956]

In the late spring or early summer i want to try artifical swarming to increase my coloney i have the nucs ready but i will have to see how the bees are before i do anything the question is how many full frames do i take out of my main hive into the nuc bearing in mind i will be leaving the queen in the main hive and will introduce a new queen into the nucs

 

[tonybloke]

In the late spring or early summer i want to try artifical swarming to increase my coloney i have the nucs ready but i will have to see how the bees are before i do anything the question is how many full frames do i take out of my main hive into the nuc bearing in mind i will be leaving the queen in the main hive and will introduce a new queen into the nucs

it's usual to take 2 frames of brood,and 2 of food

(wait for the flac)

 

[Black Comb]

I agree.
I tried some with one frame of brood last year and it took them ages to to build up, even in a polynuc.

 

[Skyhook]

In the late spring or early summer i want to try artifical swarming to increase my coloney i have the nucs ready but i will have to see how the bees are before i do anything the question is how many full frames do i take out of my main hive into the nuc bearing in mind i will be leaving the queen in the main hive and will introduce a new queen into the nucs

That doesn't sound like AS, more like making a nuc. For AS, the queen, the flying bees and 1-3 frames go in one colony, the remaining frames inc. eggs and young brood and house bees make another. Be very clear what you're doing- don't mix two techniques, the bees might not like it.

 

[RoofTops]

If you have queen cells on more than one frame you can split the old colony up into several nucs rather than the traditional method of putting all the old frames in a single brood box. However, you will usually struggle to make much more than about 3 nucs unless you take frames from other colonies.

If the queen cells are on one frame only then in theory you could cut out the cells and distribute them but not all queen cells are easy to remove and at certain stages of development they are very sensitive to handling. It is better to stick with cells on different frames if they are available.