Feeding a New Nuc

[Pansypots]

Hi, I’m a very new keeper! I spend most of my time standing by hive looking confused. Two weeks ago I put a five frame nuc into my hive. The farm I bought them from said to start feeding them a 1:1 syrup. I’ve been doing this via a rapid feeder and they are eating about 2lts every four days. My question is, do I just keep on feeding them. There is a 1acre borage field blooming about 50m away. I’ve seen them coming back with borage pollen, so I’m guessing they’re finding some nectar.
Thanks

 

[Anduril]

How well is your hive building up? Frames of brood, pollen and syrup. How many frames are now drawn out and filling with syrup or brood? You don't want your hive to become syrup bound.

 

[Ian123]

given what others have said about borage yields this year i would be inclined to keep the feed on it wont do any harm and given you have moved them up to a brood box then you can incourage them all you can, just dont rush to top up feeder....as posted above you dont want the brood area blocked by stores so move a frame of foundation up against frames containing brood, so split the brood and stores by 1 frame of foundation on each side of brood area...if on your next inspection the frames are drawn, filled with stores or laid in then it may need spinning to present the undrawn side......much will depend on nuc size/bee numbers as to how they will respond. if any of these new fames get filled with sores then just move them back 1 and keep presenting a new frame up against the brood and as they expand they will at some point lay them up before filling with stores...also at this stage you should think about treatments, and keep the entrance down to a couple of bee spaces whilst feeding

 

[Swarm]

Hello Pansypots,
As it's a small nuc in a big, new home, it may be a good idea to dummy them down until they have drawn a couple of those new frames.

 

[Heather]

Agree with 'Swarm'..
Bees from Nuc into a big National can make them a little despondent... 'wow lots of work to do'!! Better they have a new frame either side of them , then the dummy boards. Gentle feeding but not constant. As soon as they are working on the new frames you can move the dummies one frame further away as you put a new frame in to gently give more work.
Feed++ and the queen will struggle to find cells to lay in. Bit of a balancing act, but you will soon get the hang of it.
'Reading' the bees is great fun.

 

[Murox]

You have very sound advice from 'Heather'. I had a similar situation, I kept feeding them but not with syrup as I live in a fairly wet climate and I didn't want to make them extra work. I used a proprietary brand of bee fondant. 1kg lasted them around 3 weeks during which time they built up well and drew two new foundation less frames. If you use syrup just be sure the frames do not get syrup bound.