Making a nuc?

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madasafish

Queen Bee
***
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
11,201
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2,846
Location
Stoke on Trent
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
6 to 8 Langstroth jumbos, a few Langstroth and National nucs.
I have two TBHs:
one with a strong colony of carnies - 16 frames of brood and honey - and growing at one frame a week. No problems at all.
One - a recent swarm - has 6 frames and is obviously younger so less strong. Problem is that on some combs up to 20% of the brood is bald... bald brood. The Bee Inspector recommends I might requeen it. As it was recently treated for mites - Api Life Var - it is possible the treatment affected the queen/brood temporarily. The bees are very dark.

I have a new queen on order - arriving next week..

Should I :
requeen the weaker hive , and solve the bald brood issue.
or
Make up a nuc with 4 frames of stores and brood from the stronger hive and the new queen? And hope the bald brood issue resolves itself naturally.

I have a half size TBH waiting to be occupied. Both colonies are very docile.

All advice welcomed. Thanks.
 
A new swarm should be treated with Oxalic - not ApiLifevar or other thymol stuff as the Api takes too long to have any effect during which the hive comes to a standstill. Oxalic is immediate and over quickly.
 

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