goodbobby
House Bee
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2009
- Messages
- 104
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Sanderstead Surrey
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 5+
I have two 14x12 colonies, both are running out of space and I supered 10 days ago. I was intending to carry out an artificial swarm on the older colony no.1 (Buckfast) early this May to create a 3rd colony.
I carried out my first inspection last Sunday (sunny 20 degrees). I worked on colony 2 first (a late May 2010 swarm) wanting to know whether there was any space to relieve colony 1's burgeoning size. The hive was fairly full but but with room for Q to lay and plenty of stores capped brood and eggs. I spotted the Q as well. The new super was about 30% full of uncapped honey.
On getting to colony 1, I found this very tight on space. To my surprise there were a number of primed QC's in course and one large sealed one at the top of a frame. The 2010 queen was evident. I say surprised because I took 70 lbs of honey from this hive last year and have never seen, other than play-cups any sign of QCs before. Obviously I appreciate the room issue has probably triggered this.
Now comes the really stupid bit....instead of just starting the artificial swarm procedure (all the kit is in place and ready) I had a brainstorm and decided to put the QC in an apidea with young bees and fondant . On reflection an AS would have relieved the space problem. However I still can do this as planned.
Now, I intend to continue the apidea process later this week but really expect to be unsuccessful because it is probably a little early. However, this raised the hypothetical question in my mind what would I do if this little colony was successful? I have in mind building a 5 frame 14x12 nuc box, blanking off all bar 3 frames and filling the remainder with insulation,dummy boards. Then making a re-sealable entrance in the top of the nuc box and devising a way of attaching the apidea to it before eventually (once the little colony was viable) removing the bottom apidea door allowing it access to the restricted nuc and closing the apidea entrance. I could then bring on the nuc on 14x12 frames.
So my questions are (1) would this work and the Q and bees move down into the nuc? (2) would the bees just not survive because of the small colony size going into a bigger albeit reduced and insulated 3 frame nuc? (2) Would there be any merit in adding frames of sealed brood or stores to bolster such a colony once it became settled? (3) What alternatives might I have and does anyone make any suitable transfer kit?
Any help, ideas or experiences would be greatly appreciated, searches on the forum and elsewhere have come up virtually a blank.
I carried out my first inspection last Sunday (sunny 20 degrees). I worked on colony 2 first (a late May 2010 swarm) wanting to know whether there was any space to relieve colony 1's burgeoning size. The hive was fairly full but but with room for Q to lay and plenty of stores capped brood and eggs. I spotted the Q as well. The new super was about 30% full of uncapped honey.
On getting to colony 1, I found this very tight on space. To my surprise there were a number of primed QC's in course and one large sealed one at the top of a frame. The 2010 queen was evident. I say surprised because I took 70 lbs of honey from this hive last year and have never seen, other than play-cups any sign of QCs before. Obviously I appreciate the room issue has probably triggered this.
Now comes the really stupid bit....instead of just starting the artificial swarm procedure (all the kit is in place and ready) I had a brainstorm and decided to put the QC in an apidea with young bees and fondant . On reflection an AS would have relieved the space problem. However I still can do this as planned.
Now, I intend to continue the apidea process later this week but really expect to be unsuccessful because it is probably a little early. However, this raised the hypothetical question in my mind what would I do if this little colony was successful? I have in mind building a 5 frame 14x12 nuc box, blanking off all bar 3 frames and filling the remainder with insulation,dummy boards. Then making a re-sealable entrance in the top of the nuc box and devising a way of attaching the apidea to it before eventually (once the little colony was viable) removing the bottom apidea door allowing it access to the restricted nuc and closing the apidea entrance. I could then bring on the nuc on 14x12 frames.
So my questions are (1) would this work and the Q and bees move down into the nuc? (2) would the bees just not survive because of the small colony size going into a bigger albeit reduced and insulated 3 frame nuc? (2) Would there be any merit in adding frames of sealed brood or stores to bolster such a colony once it became settled? (3) What alternatives might I have and does anyone make any suitable transfer kit?
Any help, ideas or experiences would be greatly appreciated, searches on the forum and elsewhere have come up virtually a blank.