Nuc - to inspect or not?

[taurus]

I made up a nuc along the lines of the Wally Shaw 'Simple ways to make increase' - four frames of eggs/larvae/sealed brood with plenty of nursing bees - plus a frame of stores.

They've done well and made QCs. The books say reduce to 1. Wally Shaw says leave alone if they weren't swarming beforehand. So I left 2 in there.

I am using the Ohio State queen rearing calendar http://www.ohiostatebeekeepers.org/resources/queen-rearing/ according to which I should now have an emerged queen and mating flights are due this weekend. So far they've been pretty much in line with the calendar.

My question - do I leave the nuc alone and let them get on with it - or do I take a peek inside?

I am naturally curious to take a look but my instinct is to leave them well alone at this stage. The calendar is blank between 'mating flights' this weekend and 'check for eggs' in a fortnight.

Remember I'm a beginner so I want to err on the side of caution.

 

[snelgrove]

Leave well alone, and only check after 4pm. Personally I would have left only one queencell

 

[tonel]

Best to leave it alone - know it can be frustrating as a beginner when you want to see what's going on. But if the queen returns from a mating flight to find the hive open and a beekeeper there she might be disorientated and get lost, fly into the wrong hive etc. If you really want to look, best to do it late in the day as snelgrove says. I also would have just left the one cell, if the nuc is strong there's the chance you could lose a swarm with the first queen that emerges. I'd just leave them alone and try to resist the urge to look..try to find something else to do (reading bee books, making frames, doing non-bee related stuff etc)

 

[beeno]

A lot of my queens come back from mating flights later than that 17.30 hrs, but then I am further south and I do understand from the books that they take more than one mating flight per day weather permitting.

 

[Anduril]

I have made up nucs like that and left them to it. Once I had 6 queen cells in there. They didn't swarm. 1 emerged cells, the other 5 torn down.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My question - do I leave the nuc alone and let them get on with it - or do I take a peek inside?

leave them alone - for another two weeks at least

 

[madasafish]

leave them alone - for another two weeks at least

When I make up nucs like that, I add 3 weeks to the current date and write "do not inspect until date" on my inspection notes.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

When I make up nucs like that, I add 3 weeks to the current date and write "do not inspect until date" on my inspection notes.

That's my usual yardstick, but this year I'm seeing a lot of quick matings - very quick

 

[taurus]

Thanks for the advice. I am reassured that it is ok to leave them alone. Just needed to check that was the right way to go.

Interestingly I've been picking the gooseberries right next to the nuc and they've ignored me until this evening. This evening they seem to be a bit more defensive, a couple of them came to see me off the premises. Once I'd moved a few feet away they left me alone, but they didn't want me harvesting gooseberries right on their doorstep.

 

[Eyeman]

That's my usual yardstick, but this year I'm seeing a lot of quick matings - very quick

If you wait tiil 3 weeks before inspecting you may have sealed brood and therefore lost your best opportunity to knock any mites down using oxalic acid. If your not going to use OA then inspecting at 3 weeks is fine.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If you wait tiil 3 weeks before inspecting you may have sealed brood and therefore lost your best opportunity to knock any mites down using oxalic acid. If your not going to use OA then inspecting at 3 weeks is fine.

why would you want to if you keep on top of it throughout the year. More important to give the queen peace to get properly mated

 

[madasafish]

If you wait tiil 3 weeks before inspecting you may have sealed brood and therefore lost your best opportunity to knock any mites down using oxalic acid. If your not going to use OA then inspecting at 3 weeks is fine.

I treat with OA in January.

I have zero evidence of any mite issues at present.

 

[Eyeman]

why would you want to if you keep on top of it throughout the year. More important to give the queen peace to get properly mated

I treat with OA in January.

I have zero evidence of any mite issues at present.

Treating during a brood break is the best way to get those mite levels down. It's basically a wasted opportunity not using OAV at this time. I overwinter 16+ nucs and I try to make sure they have all had OA during a brood break before going into winter. How many out there regularly monitor mite levels in nucs with solid floors?
There's many out there hoping that the OA applied over winter will get them through till the end of summer. Best of luck!

 

[beeno]

That's my usual yardstick, but this year I'm seeing a lot of quick matings - very quick

So, you don't practice what you preach?

 

[madasafish]

Treating during a brood break is the best way to get those mite levels down. It's basically a wasted opportunity not using OAV at this time. I overwinter 16+ nucs and I try to make sure they have all had OA during a brood break before going into winter. How many out there regularly monitor mite levels in nucs with solid floors?
There's many out there hoping that the OA applied over winter will get them through till the end of summer. Best of luck!

You may very well be correct for your situation.

I happen to know my mite counts tend to be low all year as we have brood breaks in autumn due to poor weather etc. My last counts in December averaged 2.5/day..which was similar to 2014, which was similar to 2013 etc.

Each to their own conditions.

Getting queens mated is more difficult than killing mites.

 

[Anduril]

So, you don't practice what you preach?

I don't think it's practice what you preach. It is more a case of adapting to the situation.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

So, you don't practice what you preach?

I pass on my observations not blindly regurgitate any rubbish I read