First week inspection- total beginner - after putting 6 frames into a new hive

[daveyowen]

Hello,

Moving the bees from the nuc to the hive went really well. Bees were calm, saw the queen and a few syrup changes later no problem. However, my first inspection (though regrettably first thing in the morning due to work demands during the day and rain forecast for the rest of the week) did not go as well as planned. Forget happy bunnies, they were not happy bees !

It is all looking very healthy, I couldn't see any queen cells, but all the activity seems as expected to be in the centre frames. My four frames have not been touched (6 frame nuc) at all and they are making comb that is attached to the queen excluder in the centre.

Do I definitely need to get the comb off the excluder ? I tried but bees were not very accommodating so put back the excluder as it was.

I have also moved one of my frames closer to the centre (by one frame).

Will the bees eventually move to the outside or do I have to keep moving frames ? I am worried about swarming as the central two frames have a huge amount of bees.

I am also wondering whether in a few weeks of adding another brood box or super. I am not bothered about a honey crop this year and have two other hives to fill, so wondered if I have time to move a queen whether current one or queen larvae with several frames to another hive. Can someone please advise ? Any help would be much appreciated.

Unfortunately, I could not get a mentor from MidBucks or Oxford to guide me so I little bit on my own, but have not been stung as yet !

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You need to stop and think before planning ahead. There is loads of time yet before thinking of splitting your hive and making increase.
You have a six frame nuc, now in a full size brood box. How many frames of brood were there in the nuc? you mention only two frames being well populated with bees, maybe they were hived a bit too soon?
You say you had added four frames to the existing six - a national hive should have eleven in total.
Are the frames Hoffman self spacing or do you have plastic spacers on the lugs of the frames? regardless, the frames should be pushed together with just the required spacing between them.
You are a long way away from adding a super to this colony - It's obvious the colony is not strong enough to expand much at the moment, but we need more information.
Concentrate on building this colony up for the winter. Forget about making increase this year.

 

[Murox]

Just to clarify – you have a six frame nuc but only four frames are in use ? - you have placed the nuc frames into a standard british national hive (is it wood or poly?) and you have surrounded the nuc frames with some other frames; are the other frames drawn or are they foundation? You are also feeding them ? and you have put a queen excluder above to which the bees are attaching comb? Have I understood you correctly ?

If I have that correct my take is that you have moved them out of the nuc too soon as only four of the six frames were in use. They have too much room, you need to dummy them down, remove the queen excluder as you dont need it at all yet. From the floor up the hive should be – floor->brood box->cover board->feeder as you are using one->insulation->roof. (no insulation if its a poly hive). Need more information please.

Follow JBM's advice already given

 

[user 819]

It does sound like the bees could/should have been left in the Nuc to build up, less space to warm and easier to defend. With my 6 frame homemade BS deep nucs I also add a nuc super and don't move them to a full colony until five frames are laid in the brood body and they have drawn/laid stores or the Queen has moved up in to the super.
Op needs to place them back in to the nuc or dummy down the hive and use insulation to fill some frame space up, too much too soon for them.

 

[daveyowen]

Hello, all six frames from the nuc are in use, though two on the outside of the six are close to empty on one side. The four frames (note: sorry, I was informed that it is 10 frames only, but I can add one as there is room) that were in the hive are empty.

 

[daveyowen]

wooden hive (cedar) and yes you have understood correctly.

 

[Swarm]

Remove the new frames from one side and push them over to the hive wall. Put two new frames in on the open side and fill in the space (dummy) with a block of insulation. As they start working the new frames, you can add more until full.
Easier for the bees to work one way instead of two.