BS Nuc: post-split action

[boywonder]

Hi all - just a quick question really. This year, I have tried out a couple of BS Honeybees poly-nucs (which, BTW, I find to be very impressive, dealing with pretty much every design 'issue' I have with my Paynes and Maisemore boxes).

These come with a divider you can use, and entrances on either side of the box, so you can run a box as either a full 6-frame nuc, or a 2x3 frame mating setup. I have tried this out using the two boxes; aiming to do achieve 4 new colonies from the split. In the event, three have worked; i.e. I have one box where both sides of the partition have laying Queens. The other only has only one good side.

I now want to give the three successes more space, by allowing them to develop on a 6-frame format. I know what I am going to do with the good box. However re. the half-successful one....

...the cavalier in me just wants to remove the partition, re-order the frames so the three from the 'laying' side are at the centre of the box, and close off the other entrance. Simples.

However, it occurs to me:
1) quickly introducing the queen pheremones from the good side to the whole setup might have unknown consequences
2) flying bees on the dud side will re-orientate back to a closed entrance

... mmmm ...

Should I just do this, or is there going to be a better way ? (as I can't think of one which is not unnecessarily convoluted).

Thanks !

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[enrico]

I am guessing here as I have never used one but I would give a quick spray of air freshener, remove the partition and leave both entrances open. When they go into a full size box put the entrance half way between both or gradually close off one entrance. I presume the entrances are opposite sides of the box.
I may be very wrong here so I too will be interested in other ideas
E

 

[boywonder]

I presume the entrances are opposite sides of the box.
E

Yep ... this is the case. I had considered whether to leave both entrances open, but my thinking is that, as the colony grows, I will only get ever increasing numbers of bees using an entrance I want to close completely (given that I only want them flying to one side of my eventual hive !) ... so maybe better to fully close ASAP. Not sure myself, really !

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[Angry_Mob]

How I'd do it is to cause sheer utter confusion.

First of all I'd take a frame from a third colony and put that in. Bees in three way units typically don't fight whereas two way unites do. In addition to using some air freshener Enrico mentioned I'd also spray all frames with some mint water which is basically something like a foxs glacier mint in a spray bottle with water, the bees will then be preoccupied with grooming each other and this also masks the pheromones. The moving of the frames that you mentioned would also cause some further confusion.

I'd probably also close the entrance on the side of of the queen less colony in the evening when the flying bees have returned, when they try to go out that entrance again it will be closed to them so they will have to find the other entrance and re orientate.


You could also protect the queen under a push in cage if you wanted to be sure.