overwintering nucs to unite or not

[rockdoc]

I have one five frame nuc with a small colony. I've just checked and there are 3 full frames of brood (all stages) with a little stores in the corners. The last two frames have some pollen and honey in but are not full by a long way. I've started feeding fondant which they are taking down..
The other colony is in a brood box and is about the same size, has one extra frame of brood and more stores, although about 4 frames remain un-drawn foundation. They are bringing in lots of Ivy pollen and are not being fed.

Question, should I move the nuc colony to a brood box for winter or leave them, or should I consider uniting them? I'm still not sure which is the best tempered queen as both colony's are small and respond about the same when being manipulated. They are both calm and still on the comb.
Just to add to the mix, both colony's are separated by a roaring colony with 2 supers on which are filling fast with Ivy.

 

[drstitson]

your small colony in brood box with undrawn foundation will be struggling to maintain status quo due to the "empty" space.

my suggestion is to run them as two 5 frame nucs in a split brood box. then decide in spring what to do.

 

[Busybee123]

Hi Rockdoc,

Here is my take on your situation, but please bear in mind that I am still very much a newbee and do not have the wealth of experience that others have.....so much of what I say may be total bo**ocks

Your nuc has 3 frames of brood and 2 frames of stores.

I would say your options are to overwinter as a nuc (possibly in a poly nuc box) or unite (see below). This colony would find it hard to stay warm in a full size brood box.

Your other colony has 4 frames of brood, 3 frames of stores and 4 frames of foundation.

If you do not unite this colony with the nuc I would be inclined to remove a couple of the frames of foundation from this hive and use a dummy board to effectively reduce the size of the hive and fill the void with insulation.

If you unite the nuc with this colony you will end up with 7 frames of brood and 4 frames of stores (or 5 frames of stores if you don't use a dummy board) which would seem like a nice strong colony to be going into winter with.

If I were in your situation I think that I would unite your nuc and your small colony.

 

[oliver90owner]

both colony's are separated by a roaring colony

Maybe looking at the whole picture and not just the individual parts might offer a solution?

RAB

 

[Busybee123]

both colony's are separated by a roaring colony

Maybe looking at the wholepicture and not just the individual parts might offer a solution?

RAB

Errrrrr, you've lost me Rab (not difficult I know )

 

[rae]

I've got two nucs (2 frames of brood, 2 stores, filling the third), and I'm thinking of putting them in a full size brood for winter.

You're insane, you all say.

My thinking is this. A full size brood with 70mm of celotex in each end and 25 mm of celotex in the roof will be a far better insulated box than a standard nuc. By moving the celotex,I can get an extra frame (or two) in if the season lasts bit longer.

Just to add to the mix, both colony's are separated by a roaring colony with 2 supers on which are filling fast with Ivy.

As O9O says....taking a frame of brood from the roaring colony for each of the tiddlers will boost them nicely.

 

[rockdoc]

I must confess I hadn't thought of depleting the large colony in this way. Presumably I would need to shake off the nurse bees first to ensure I didn't pass over the queen by mistake?. For the split brood box (which sounds interesting, how do I manage the move with the large colony separating the two little ones, or is it a take away and join job? and how do you work the separate entrances?

 

[kighill]

Yes, you can just shake off the bees and place the frame into your Nuc box, should go ok without and problems, provided you have enough bees and nurse bees to prevent the unhatched brood going cold.

 

[drstitson]

"Presumably I would need to shake off the nurse bees first to ensure I didn't pass over the queen by mistake?."

or perhaps just identify the queen first?

as you have a total of 5 hives you could give each nuc colony 2 spare frames of brood and bees (in new dummied down and insulated brood boxes).