First Nuc

[Nubian]

I'm in my first full year of beekeeping and since my first colony, which I received in the autumn, have wintered well and now buit up strongly, I'm trying to make some increase.
I've made up a nuc with a couple of frames of brood and one of stores, and given them a queen cell, which has hatched today, so I hopefully have a virgin queen in there somewhere...
I'd like to give them another frame of capped brood to bolster their numbers, but I've read that a new queen (assuming that she mates sucessfully etc etc) won't start to lay until all the 'old queen's' brood has hatched. This would mean that adding a frame of brood now will actually delay the new queen coming into lay, which doesn't sound like a good idea.

Is my logic sound, or is the 'no new eggs until old brood hatched' rule just an old wives tale ?

Comments please.

 

[sugarbush]

Capped brood will emerge long before your queen is laying. She probably will not mate for a week minimum.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Beware of adding extra brood. The bees in the nuc you made need to have the nurse bees to cope with it so look first if those brood frames you used to make the nuc up have largely emerged.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Is my logic sound, or is the 'no new eggs until old brood hatched' rule just an old wives tale ?

Comments please.

An old wives tale - I suspect the story began due to the simple fact that usually all the brood has emerged before she is mated.
I've had more than one occasion where the new queen has mated before all the old brood has gone.
As Erichalfbee - make sure the nuc can cope with an influx of extra brood

 

[Poly Hive]

Really it is bees they need not brood.

Use a perfumed spray, a drop or two of after shave or channel works well, lightly shake a brood frame from your colony to lose the fliers, spray the rest and shake into your nuc having ALREADY perfumed them. Repeat until you are happy you have enough bees in.

Close up and leave the nuc for the next three weeks unless you have stores concerns.

PH

 

[beeno]

Hi Nubian,
The only thing you should do to that nuc at the moment is to check the marked frame to ensure she has emerged to eliminate that it was not a dud queen cell. Any other manipulations should wait until you see eggs about 14 days from now (assuming you got your dates right).

 

[Nubian]

Ok folks, thanks for the input - it looks like the consensus is that unless they really look to be in trouble (which they don't), leave well alone for a couple of weeks.
I've established that the queen cell was definitely vacated yesterday (it was brought from another colony and hung between two frames, so easy to inspect) so it's a case of fingers crossed for two weeks.
Incidentally, for how long does she mature before embarking on a mating flight ?
It has been uncommonly summer-like here for the last few days and is set to stay that way through to the weekend, but beyond that.......... normal (wet)service will undoubtedly resume.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

so it's a case of fingers crossed for two weeks.

Don't listen to all that rubbish about queens should be mated in two weeks. Don't bother looking for at least another three weeks and the just a quick peek to see if you can see brood. You may be lucky and she'll be mated in less than a fortnight, but on the whole it takes a lot longer so don't panic if you don't see eggs straight away.