Suggestions welcome

[Jonnyl]

Friend with a huge enclosed garden wants bees. No problem. Two hives better than one, she's cool with that. I've got two 14x12s hives. One is slow to build up this year but the other is thriving however a little cold to inspect just yet. I've two nuc boxes ready. My plan. Wait till the busy hive has 6-7 frames of brood and drones. Take the queen from the hive into a nuc with a frame of stores as well as the frame shes on and 3 frames of drawn comb and a good shake of bees. Fill the doner hive with drawn comb. After a week take another frame from the donor with a qc and and put it in nuc 2 with adhering bees, two frames of stores and drawn comb frames. Replenish doner with a frame of brood from nuc 1. Leave both donor hive (with all remaining qcs) and nuc 2 alone for a month. Then I have two nucs to give away? Donor hive a write off for honey this year? Will/should this work? TIA.

 

[enrico]

It would in theory but I wouldn't be giving away anything until I knew the new queen's were laying and their temperament was good!
E

 

[Murox]

There are various ways of achieving your aim.
Have you read through this ?
http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Simple-methods-of-making-Increase-Final-reduced1.pdf

 

[REDWOOD]

Personally I would wait until swarm season, old queen in nuc, with brood and stores (feed if there are no stores ) and shake the young bees from the supers into the nuc, move six foot + so flying bees return to the old hive. Or make up a nuc with a queen cell, three frames of emerging brood and two of stores, again move 6 foot +. You will still have to sort out the swarming hive with this method.

 

[Jonnyl]

Thank you. Yes, I'll wait a little yet and wont put the nucs in place until I'm sure they're good. As long as the premis is sound. Cheers.