Paynes Q- Poly Nuc starter

[Red Bee]

Am aiming to have another go at Queen rearing soon and would like to try out raising cells in a Paynes Poly Nuc. Does anyone use this method and have any tips? At a start 6 frames of brood with bees and how many frames of bees shaken in? Or maybe 5 brood 1 stores to be taken out for graft frame.

Cheers.

 

[Jimmy]

It would work but your queens will possibly be limited by sufficient but not great nutrition during the key larval stage.

Look up Richard Noel's (plenty of honey) cell builder videos on YouTube - he places great value on having absolutely rammed large boxes of bees with pollen and nectar available to provide the larva with excellent nutrition. Also Michael Palmer from Vermont is worth watching.

 

[For want of a better word]

Am aiming to have another go at Queen rearing soon and would like to try out raising cells in a Paynes Poly Nuc. Does anyone use this method and have any tips? At a start 6 frames of brood with bees and how many frames of bees shaken in? Or maybe 5 brood 1 stores to be taken out for graft frame.

Cheers.

PM sent!!

 

[Walrus]

I don't do this, but Joe Latshaw wrote about it here:

https://www.beeculture.com/net-gain-cell-building-system/

Basically he has a 5 frame nuc triple decker with the QX below the top layer. He aims to keep it just at the point where swarming would be next. Removes brood and older bees to keep in this state (which means getting up very early!)

That last point alone is enough to put me off

 

[Poly Hive]

My best ever outcome was from a five frame nuc which was comprised of pollen combs x 2 and two stores combs and an empty space for the grafts to occupy. I shook in baby bees from several stocks until the nuc was over flowing.

They were shut in over night and the grafts offered the following morning.

When I lifted off the crown board there was a beard of bees hanging from it which had been in the space.

32 accepted from 36. Never got near it since but... the weather suddenly improved and I had been grafting every day for a good ten days so my technique was pretty good.

Starting in a nuc with brood... not the best plan in my experience.

PH

 

[Red Bee]

Thanks for the replies.

Lets hope the weather gets better soon,bring back the sun!!