Feeding nuc?

[AndreaW]

Just wanted to check something..... bear with me as a newby ?

Picking up my bees very early tomorrow morning - they are on a 4 frame nuc in a commercial brood box - not sure if they are bigger than the 4 frames as the beekeeper concerned put them into my hive a few weeks ago so they might have expanded their colony quite a bit by now. It has the full number of frames in the brood box and yes he is a very experienced beekeeper, well recommended so if I have said somthing stupid here I might have misunderstood what he does

Anyway my ? is after all that waffle:
as we are in the June gap in Essex he said last week that I would probably need to feed them. I have a gallon contact feeder and was going to make the syrup up tonight so it dissolves and is ready to go straight on hive tomorrow morning. Is it 1:1 sugar to water that I use or a different mix and is this by volume or weight?

Thank you. So excited, off to get them at 6am tomorrow.

 

[666bees]

The summer feed is 1kilo of sugar to 1 litre of water. ps good luck with your bees.

 

[kazmcc]

Good luck with your bees i expect you won't be reading any of this though once they've arrived. We will be able to find you stood watching them coming and going LOL

 

[AndreaW]

Good luck with your bees i expect you won't be reading any of this though once they've arrived. We will be able to find you stood watching them coming and going LOL

I have my camera on charge already

 

[Midland Beek]

I would be inclined to feed any newly installed nuc. I do not think it matters hugely how exact the syrup is made up for feeding at this time of the season. I would personally go for a tad bit stronger than 1:1.

 

[AndreaW]

I would be inclined to feed any newly installed nuc. I do not think it matters hugely how exact the syrup is made up for feeding at this time of the season. I would personally go for a tad bit stronger than 1:1.

What would you recommend - I'm new to all this .

I have an ashforth (Miller?) feeder but am too nervous to use it incase they all drown on me tomorrow - will save it for winter. I am going to use a gallon contact feeder for the moment.

 

[oliver90owner]

I would probably need to feed them.

That is what he said? He was careful, warned you might need to feed but had not decided for sure.

Take his advice. Find out how much stores they have and feed as appropriate. If there are a couple of frames of stores already, the answer is likely watch and see if the stores increase or decrease. If marginal, then feed for certain. Otherwise, I would feed no more than enough to settle them into their new surroundings. I have not fed anything this season yet and nothing needs anything.

Some have received nucs with no stores (err, like empty frames!). Some full colonies have already needed feeding in some parts of the country to prevent starvation. So there are large differences across the regions. There is a higher probability than 50% that it may need feeding. That is not an automatic 100%! I would hope the strain is not one that produces excessive brood whatever the conditions (bees like that are usually supplied by the 'imported queens with a few bees added' type suppliers). Your supplier seems better than that!

The one thing I would say is don't overdo it. You want bees, not combs stuffed full of sugar syrup. Ideally you want honey, not sugar syrup. A nuc is only a small colony, not a certain stretcher case.

He has warned you so you are already armed with a feeder, just in case. Follow his advice. He will know far better than others on here, I am sure. I presume he is local and can tell you how to assess the stores. I presume he has other colonies which he could use as a benchmark. I presume he will have checked the colony very recently. He will be aware of all these points if he is as experienced as you say.

One of the checks is always: Does it have adequate stores to last until the next inspection?. He will, no doubt err on the safe side anyway. Take his advice.

One thread I have read recently is where someone has fed 14kg of sugar to a prime swarm over a period of a fortnight. That swarm either needed (was starving) it or it has not benefitted from that rate of feeding at all. I suspect the latter but am in no position to actually know how much wa sacyually needed.

The June gap refers to most colonies not collecting a huge surplus, just a maintenance plus. It will depend on your location as well. A rural location within swathes of OSR may well be barren for the bees. In town, there is likely more than enough garden flowers for a sufficient amount of nectar for them to steadily increase their stores. Lousy weather, with it contunually hissing down with rain every day for a week, is another matter still.

Ask if he has been feeding it. If so, how much; if not, why? Especially if he is now saying feed, feed, feed. A kg of sugar is probably OK for a start, if necessary.

Enjoy your bees.

Regards, RAB

 

[Poly Hive]

I fully endorse all of that.

Neatly put.

PH

 

[AndreaW]

Thanks RAB,
Very good advice. I will wait until tomorrow and ask him, he was away today. Hive is in my garden so no worry about going back to add a feeder etc. He has been reering queens and selling bees for 25 or so years so he knows his stuff; also home grown queens (although they are prolific!) rather than imports. I know he is checking the stores etc - will wait and see what he thinks and not make anything up tonight ;-)

 

[Blue Spinnaker]

Hope you enjoy tomorrow , I've had mine for a whole week now and it's all a bit over-whelming but this site is jam packed with helpful information. The beekeeper that brought me mine gave me comprehensive instructions for the immediate care, plus the option of phoning him at any time for help or to ask him to come over and check them, and I didn't really know him at all!

 

[kazmcc]

I know I am inexperienced, but I would agree with Rab. We recieved our nuc around this time last year, and just left em to it. We had a good amount of stores with them though. They got off to a flying start....forgive the pun lol.

Oooo, it's almost time! Must be like waiting for Christmas

 

[mystil]

Its nerve racking isnt it? all the waiting.
Were getting a nuc tomorrow aswell (our first one).

Im actually going to feed 1 water:2 sugar ratio. This is the autumn feeding ratio but quite a number of the beeks in this area like to err on the side of caution and I would rather overfeed than not feed enough but that is just me.