nucs for sale in Derby

[Ervyne]

I prob should change my status to say 2 hives, to save confusion!

 

[Hombre]

With two colonies, what would I do?

In your position, I would feed the small one with patty and stimulative syrup in a frame feeder.

Then when they have enough bees, Do a shook swarm on the big colony and feed to get them to draw out comb. They will quickly be off like a rocket and be in a good position to supply a decent crop. My shook swarm last year was my main producer.

The brood from the shook swarm give to the smaller colony. The timing should be so that the smaller colony is in a position to take all the brood frames from the larger one and have enough bees to cover. So don't wait too long as if you give them more brood than they can look after it will be wasted. If you must discard brood, then discard open brood that you are donating as it represents less investment by the bees than bees that are a week away from emerging. The bolstered smaller colony will become larger quicker and you should be able to split it into three or four at a stretch when they show that they are making preparations to swarm. Alternatively if you are able to get mated queens from a friend then the nucs won't have any setbacks waiting for virgin queens becoming mated. Feed them.

1 production colony
4 nucs to build into full colonies going into the winter.
You might also be able to take a late nuc from the production colony in July if you have a mated queen available. That will give you six colonies going into winter 2011.

Others will probably tell you their plan given your circumstances and some might point out flaws with my ideas.

My experience of queens becoming mated has been good earlier in the year but patchy later on.

Your small colony is only too small at the moment. Charles Atlas was a puny 9st weakling once.

 

[Ervyne]

I forgot to say thank you for the advice Hombre. I appreciate it

 

[knotty]

With two colonies, what would I do?

In your position, I would feed the small one with patty and stimulative syrup in a frame feeder.

Then when they have enough bees, Do a shook swarm on the big colony and feed to get them to draw out comb. They will quickly be off like a rocket and be in a good position to supply a decent crop. My shook swarm last year was my main producer.

The brood from the shook swarm give to the smaller colony. The timing should be so that the smaller colony is in a position to take all the brood frames from the larger one and have enough bees to cover. So don't wait too long as if you give them more brood than they can look after it will be wasted. If you must discard brood, then discard open brood that you are donating as it represents less investment by the bees than bees that are a week away from emerging. The bolstered smaller colony will become larger quicker and you should be able to split it into three or four at a stretch when they show that they are making preparations to swarm. Alternatively if you are able to get mated queens from a friend then the nucs won't have any setbacks waiting for virgin queens becoming mated. Feed them.

1 production colony
4 nucs to build into full colonies going into the winter.
You might also be able to take a late nuc from the production colony in July if you have a mated queen available. That will give you six colonies going into winter 2011.

Others will probably tell you their plan given your circumstances and some might point out flaws with my ideas.

My experience of queens becoming mated has been good earlier in the year but patchy later on.

Your small colony is only too small at the moment. Charles Atlas was a puny 9st weakling once.

Thanks for the post. I'm going to give it a try. I only have 1 overwintered hive (newbie) from last June that seems to be bouncing into life with all the snowdrops and crocus out at the moment. I have people queing up to buy honey so am trying to buy another nuc as early in the season as possible. I like the idea of a split and a "productive" hive. Cheers. Any thoughts on "local" or imported queens? The imported Carnolian queen that came with my nuc was superseded a couple of months after purchase and they made their own unmarked (can't find her) local queen producing feisty but productive bees.

 

[Hombre]

If you would care to update your profile to give your location, hive type etc Knotty, it would help those attempting to assist you.

Carniolans, are good for making bees and if you are able to keep them in the box and not thinking of making queen cells then they can make you a lot of honey, but they are very prone to swarming and will make lots of bees given half a chance.

You might end up requiring a lot more equipment than you imagine. A local queen is to be preferred if you can get them.

 

[ladyrose1956]

Do you sell youe pete if so how much and when are they ready