Nuc Method of Swarm Control

[Eyeman]

Use a variation of the nuc method here sometimes, depending on the time of season. Used to take the queen along with a frame of brood and a couple of shakes of bees, but now just take the queen and a cup full of bees into a queen excluded mini nuc.

All frames with brood in the colony are shaken off and all queen cells destroyed, making sure they still have some eggs, at the next inspection, again all the emergency cells are destroyed and a marked frame containing eggs and larvae is put into the colony, next inspection only one frame to check this time, again all emergency cells on this frame are destroyed and the clipped queen put back into the colony, during this time the queen will of fattened back up, the bee numbers in the colony will be slightly reduced, there will be plenty of empty cells in the colony... and they will of got over the swarming impulse, they usually then settle down for the rest of the season with no further swarming urges.

If the queen is not worth putting back, then a new young clipped queen is introduced instead, the old queen has in the meantime established a mini nuc with brood and can be bopped off and replaced with a ripe cell from the incubator.

Same method that I use and Brother Adam. He recommended leaving them 10 days after the queen is removed, going in and knocking down the QC's then waiting 4 more days before requeening.
My colonies like to back fill the brood chamber after removing the queen so when I come to requeen in 14 days time not much space to lay; despite giving them drawn supers to fill!
So instead of replacing those frames I took out with the nuc I put a 3 frame dummy in for 14 days. Then when the new queen goes in I remove the dummy and put in 3 frames of drawn comb so she have some place to lay.

 

[Angry_Mob]

And where/how would i go about sourcing a queen? If no idea how the system operates and it would be prudent to know in any case. Cheers. X

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Early in the season ie now your only option in imports from the likes of Greece or Italy, BS honey bees is one such supplier.

You could also talk to people in your association; someone may have queens they could sell or give to you later in the season.

As for suppliers I've bought from BHP who are a buckfast supplier or Hivemaker from this forum is another option under Exmoor bees.

If you prefer AMM I've purchased from Jonathan Getty before as well if you google his name.

There are more suppliers, those are some of the ones I know of. In the meantime order yourself some wire mesh and make yourself a push in queen introduction cage.

 

[Jonnyl]

Thank you, I'll look into it. Cheers

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