Collected my first nuc on Saturday :-)

[enrico]

Your first lesson Steve......do not go into the hive without a reason! Think what you want to do, do it, and be as quick as you can be with as little disturbance as possible. Lets say you want to check for queen cells for example, it's no good just checking to find one, you must have a plan of what you are going to do when you find one, or two, or dozens! You must have the equipment to hand and be prepared to use it. If for example you want find and mark the queen, have the marker nearby and ready, always have somewhere to put things that you want trip over them and try and be neat and tidy....lol...
Be calm and gentle, but please....be prepared. What I am leading to is that you WILL need another hive. You can always make your own as long as you get the dimensions right! Do you still have the nuc box? That can be useful.
Good luck and don't be afraid to ask but be prepared for numerous answers! You have to pick the one that suits your method and reason for keeping bees best.
Good luck
E

 

[drstitson]

nuc to full brood

"I placed them in the center just like Ive watched hundreds of youtube videos do"

hundreds of youtube clips from warmer climes perhaps?

as per others here - even in good UK weather plonking 6 nuc frames in the middle of a brood box with nothing else for company but foundation and free space sits somewhere along a spectrum between wrong and inadvisable.

bees need heat and sugar to draw wax. leaving them having to keep a big box warm is not advisable.

as suggested - nuc frames + 1-2 foundation dummied down (with insulation too) is usual approach by most. just add extra foundation as bees need it.

rehoming is not a one step job typically (despite what youtube suggests) - for best results with less stress to the colony it's a step by step transition from nuc size to full brood size.

 

[Luminos]

And congratulations!
I started out on my own because I didn't have another option - so if you have an offer of help, do accept it!
I too only wanted one colony, but I lost my first one to disease, due to varroa mites, and thus had no backup.
So...best to have more than one. You will learn in due course why a second colony can be vital.

Lastly, stick with the forum - I'd have been sunk without it!
(And quite often it's the grumpy ones who give the best advice).

 

[itma]

"I placed them in the center just like Ive watched hundreds of youtube videos do"

hundreds of youtube clips from warmer climes perhaps?

as per others here - even in good UK weather plonking 6 nuc frames in the middle of a brood box with nothing else for company but foundation and free space sits somewhere along a spectrum between wrong and inadvisable.

bees need heat and sugar to draw wax. leaving them having to keep a big box warm is not advisable.

as suggested - nuc frames + 1-2 foundation dummied down (with insulation too) is usual approach by most. just add extra foundation as bees need it.

rehoming is not a one step job typically (despite what youtube suggests) - for best results with less stress to the colony it's a step by step transition from nuc size to full brood size.

Better to put them up against one end of the hive, with just one foundation frame each side of the nuc frames, and end with a dummy board.
Being on YouTube isn't a badge of quality!

As per my previous grumpinesses, a dummy board is NOT a frame with hardboard instead of foundation.
It is thinner than a (hoffman) brood frame. And it is flat towards the nearest frame, presenting a flat face butting up against the hoffmans.
One part of the idea is that the end frame face 'sees' the exact same space in front of it as if it was up against the hive wall.
Right, that's got that out of the way.


Books. I don't think you got your reading list from this forum!
Take a look at the Haynes manual for a modern pictorial guide, and for the opposite approach (and just accept that he was writing before mesh floors and varroa) there is much wisdom in Ted Hooper's book.
Get them from the Library, to see how you get on with them before splashing cash.


Do: join your local association and ask all the different people WHY they prefer their chosen (different) methods. Why is as important as what.
Don't: think you can learn everything from print (or YouTube). There's no substitute for real bees and seeing as many as possible of the different things that they can get up to!

 

[BeeNice]

Well done, follow the advice of the dummy boards, if you have a strong nuc and a flow of nectar and pollen they may build up quickly, that's weeks not days. If you have a new queen (last years) she should be well mated and laying well. On a normal year you may not get QC's this year, if the queen has room to lay and the bees have plenty of room to store honey. This means adding a super before the bees are overfilling the BB to give room. The first year is nice as the nuc grows and will give you plenty of time to prepare for the 2nd year, then, the game changes and you will have to deal with QC's and splits. But that's all to come.

 

[itma]

... My only worry at this time is about brood boxes!! Do I need to order a 2nd brood box? if so when? I'm worrying about swarming and preventing it. Everything I read or watch is about splitting etc but I only want one hive this yr and possibly another next yr. Surley by keep splitting your hive numbers double
Also if I find queen cells what do I do? again I have read different things and most is about creating more colonies which I don't want to do.

Swarming should be some while away.

Your immediate concern is getting all the frames of foundation drawn as the colony expands.
Then getting them to move up into their first super ... (especially if it is entirely new)
However, if that fails, you may then be faced with swarming behaviour.

Read and understand the short Welsh Queen Cell document that has been linked for you. Before you need to!

Understand that when you get Swarm Queen Cells, you have to act promptly to avoid losing one or more swarms. And that there are lots of confusingly different methods for doing that - but knocking down all QCs on sight is not one of them!
Generally, splitting the colony - so it feels as though it has swarmed - is involved.
Choose a method. Ask your association and mentor.
You need spare kit appropriate to your chosen method. Your association and/or mentor may be able to help - but you need it on pretty well immediate availability.
An additional brood box on its own is not enough for any viable method. / you need more than that!

As others have explained, you can later recombine if you want to avoid increasing the number of colonies you have. A single (large) colony will be much more productive than the same number of bees divided between two colonies.

 

[Bitbybit]

It feels very strange giving advice as I have just started myself. When I bought my bees I was advised to get two nucs and I now know this was the correct way to go. Try to establish two hives, you can compare and contrast, this makes you question, which then hopefully leads to solutions And you have back up when you need it. One of my hives is not doing so well but the second hive gives me options that working on a single hive does not.

 

[oliver90owner]

Now, after three pages of variable this and that, go back to post #2 and do it. Simple straightforward, no compromise advice. Take it or leave it but you could rue the day you ignored it if we have another spell of bad weather in the near future. Take the chance if you want but the advice is there and has been repeated at least twice since.

 

[steve56616]

Was unable to post yesterday as had to work. Ive not ignored any advice given and greatly appreciate all comments that have been posted. I have done what has been suggested. Thank you to you all