Nuc beekeeping

[Into the lions den]

Answering both the above in one post while eating a late lunch.....

1. All the wax get rendered down and we send it all to Thornes where they mill it for us and we get it back as foundation...which mostly we use but sometimes also sell a little. It adds up to quite an amount.

2. Never seen any difference between wax amounts and wax quality from different races/sub species of bees.
Going back to my drawn comb vs foundation vs starters vs sections experiments back in the 1980's is of minor worth here as we are talking brood combs and the experiment was about overall honey production. I do not think it will make a big difference in the broodnest as bees on flows (natural or articial) secrete wax scales anyway. Most gets used..but have seen them just talking the excess out and dumping it.

 

[B+.]

Popular view - do you think though the strain on bees producing more wax should be a consideration! Presumably there’s a lost production cost as well as the direct financial.

If you don't have the bees, Yes. However, bees can't help but draw wax when they're the right age and there is a nectar flow on - so, if you have the bees, it's not a problem.
I see lots of beekeepers on here who'll spend a pound to save a penny but resist the idea of minimizing risk when the impact, should things go wrong, could be catastrophic.

 

[Swarm]

Answering both the above in one post while eating a late lunch.....

1. All the wax get rendered down and we send it all to Thornes where they mill it for us and we get it back as foundation...which mostly we use but sometimes also sell a little. It adds up to quite an amount.

2. Never seen any difference between wax amounts and wax quality from different races/sub species of bees.
Going back to my drawn comb vs foundation vs starters vs sections experiments back in the 1980's is of minor worth here as we are talking brood combs and the experiment was about overall honey production. I do not think it will make a big difference in the broodnest as bees on flows (natural or articial) secrete wax scales anyway. Most gets used..but have seen them just talking the excess out and dumping it.

He said strain on the bees, not strain of bee.

 

[Into the lions den]

He said strain on the bees, not strain of bee.

LOL..yes he did...not wearing my ruddy glasses turns a keyboard into a hazard. However,,,the rest of the answer kind of deals with the question as asked. They make wax anyway during a flow. We do not force them to....and drawing foundation AT THE RIGHT TIMES, whilst it does take a bit of honey yield away...does seem to be something that keeps the bees settled.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Tried it and wow it is total bollocks,
bees in a nuc swarm.
Doesn't matter if it's a 16 frame nuc they swarm.
You'll make jack all honey and be up a tree for months.
Stick them in a 12 frame box and make some honey.

 

[domino]

Oh my...Nuc beekeeping at its best.

You're the reason I run one nuc (and some spares) per. hive. Works wonderfully.

 

[CaptainCymru]

Tried it and wow it is total bollocks,
bees in a nuc swarm.
Doesn't matter if it's a 16 frame nuc they swarm.
You'll make jack all honey and be up a tree for months.
Stick them in a 12 frame box and make some honey.

Why would they swarm in a 16 frame but not 12 frame ?

 

[Nige.Coll]

Why would they swarm in a 16 frame but not 12 frame ?

No Idea but they do. They build up like no tomorrow though. Only thing I could think of was it didn't allow the typical round brood nest.
Tried supers on them and the were ignored.
I cut the feeder out of paynes poly nucs and made them 8 frame added an extra brood body for the 16 frames.
Tried it with a few and it always ended in swarming with empty supers.
I was recovering from surgery on my arm at the time and was trying to find a way of reducing the weight of the boxes.

 

[domino]

No Idea but they do. They build up like no tomorrow though. Only thing I could think of was it didn't allow the typical round brood nest.
Tried supers on them and the were ignored.
I cut the feeder out of paynes poly nucs and made them 8 frame added an extra brood body for the 16 frames.
Tried it with a few and it always ended in swarming with empty supers.
I was recovering from surgery on my arm at the time and was trying to find a way of reducing the weight of the boxes.

When I was a beginner I was convinced that more space = fewer swarms. A few seasons later the bees taught me otherwise.

 

[Boston Bees]

Why would they swarm in a 16 frame but not 12 frame ?

In theory, I guess a narrower hive is more likely to have a solid "honey dome" across the top of the frames. This would make it more likely that the bees would ignore a super, and thus more likely that they would swarm.

This could be overcome either by

a) actively managing the brood nest to break up the honey dome

or

b) under supering a la warre

But I can certainly see that nuc hives might need more active swarm management than wider hives. Though this is only my theory.

 

[Swarm]

I built a tower of six poly nuc boxes a couple of years ago, the bees seemed to like it. Great way to get comb drawn but I dropped them down into three standard deep boxes for safety.

 

[madasafish]

I run two Langstroth jumbo 6 frame nucs as a Q starter/rearer .Much easier to manipulate than two jumbo brood boxes.
About 90,000 cells so space for the most vigorous bees.

 

[domino]

I built a tower of six poly nuc boxes a couple of years ago, the bees seemed to like it. Great way to get comb drawn but I dropped them down into three standard deep boxes for safety.

I do that now, put a brood box on the double nucs I over winter and they draw the frames out very nicely.

 

[CaptainCymru]

I was planning to just rotate 3 jumbo lang nuc brood boxes. Slip a QE in end of June,harvest top box in August, treat the two boxes left for varroa then replace the third box taken underneath the other two .That way theres always space and they continue to always build down .that's the theory anyway .