Splitting off a nuc early

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gp125john

New Bee
Joined
Feb 8, 2019
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Location
Staffordshire
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I have just a single colony at the moment but realise that is a fairly precarious position to be in if anything goes wrong. I have planned to increase to a 3 colonies by the end of the year.

A couple of weeks ago the hive was very congested with newly emerged beesand OSR on the brink of flowering so I added another 14x12 box. I wrapped the hole hive with 50mm celotex and to be honest have been quite anxious about whether this gamble would have worked. Thankfully it has and most of the combs in the top box are now full of eggs, larvae and brood and the queen is now laying up the bottom box. Hopefully I will have lots of bees when they all emerge.

I have a queen ordered for the 2nd week of April and wondered what was the best thing to do. Minded to take a few frames and make a nuc for the new queen and then rear a couple of my own queens in late April from my double brood colony. Is this sensible?

Also should i make a nuc a week in adbance and removs any emergency cells they make or should I add the queen straight away in an introduction cage?


Many thanks in advance,

John
 
get yourself a 5/6 frame nuc box. Poly being best with a feeder. wait till the queen arrives then populate the nuc with sealed brood and plenty of bees. you should have plenty to choose from if what you say is right. bang the queen in still in its cage but don't take off any tape or tags that seal in the queen. feed 1:1 syrup. check on her the next day to see if she's been accepted. remove tags/tape from the travel cage if all is well and the queen will be released by the bees in due course. I would also stick on a super and QX on the double brood hive while your suited up.
 
Last edited:
get yourself a 5/6 frame nuc box. Poly being best with a feeder. wait till the queen arrives then populate the nuc with sealed brood and plenty of bees. you should have plenty to choose from if what you say is right. bang the queen in still in its cage but don't take off any tape or tags that seal in the queen. feed 1:1 syrup. check on her the next day to see if she's been accepted. remove tags/tape from the travel cage if all is well and the queen will be released by the bees in due course. I would also stick on a super and QX on the double brood hive while your suited up.

good concise advice......what the forum is all about
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