First inspection of nuc

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gasman

New Bee
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
28
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Location
North Suffolk
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
5
Hi all,

I picked up a six frame nuc on Friday evening (last week), due to strong cold winds I finally located them in the hive late Tuesday. As the temperature was starting to drop I didn't hang about and inspect the brood (also the girls were covering the brood, probably to keep it warm).

Anyway the next day at lunchtime they were very happy and extremely busy coming and going.

I was going to leave them for 7 days to settle in but as I could not look at the brood and they had been in the nuc box for several days should I be thinking of doing it over the weekend? Also if I find queen cells what would be the best course of action?

Michael
 
I see no reason at all to disturb them now that they are hived. Let them settle or you may risk an impromptu departure.
 
For what it's worth, I agree with Moggs

Much better to let the bees settle for a week or so rather than upsetting them.

Presumably, if it's a Nuc then the queen is new and there was plenty of space to last a good few weeks anyway.
 
The queen was mated last year and there were 6 new frames of foundation for them to play with.

I assume the advice is to give them a couple of weeks to settle in?
 
A lot can be gleaned from what is happening at the entrance, e.g. pollen arriving, orientation flights and the general 'focus' of the charges within! I wouldn't mess them about unnecessarily for a week at least.
 
I got my first Nuc 3 weeks back, when i got them they had been over wintered and built up strong and fast in the Nuc Box. When i got them in their new home I noticed they were building queen cells along the bottom of the middle frames.

So i have been looking at them every 4-5 days to make sure they have lost the urdge to swarm, they build a few play cells and they seamed to have setled in fine. Its me whos more worried than them.
 
I know the feeling, its a steep learning curve even though I did the course!

There is nothing like practical experience and getting hands on with your own bees.
 

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