Uniting a Nuc and Hive

[Eddie_H]

Queen in hive laying mostly drones. Nearly sure it’s not LW’s, as fresh eggs are in a good pattern and mostly at cell bottom.

That hive is not obviously building up. Lots of drones there, and the season getting on.

So........

Have a 6 frame nuc , Q laying really well.. building up nicely. I was going to maybe leave them in there over winter. But thought it best to unite with the hive...

Could I Unite them directly into a brood box, by dusting/spraying them? Or is it necessary to use the newspaper method?

Any advice welcome...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Have you other hives?
I would just shake them out.
No point in adding drones to a colony that doesn’t want them. They would only eat their stores and waste the workers time and energy throwing them out

 

[Eddie_H]

Have you other hives?
I would just shake them out.
No point in adding drones to a colony that doesn’t want them. They would only eat their stores and waste the workers time and energy throwing them out

No, that’s all I have.

Do you mean just dump the bees? There’s plenty of workers too. Surely the nuc could do with them?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Then unite them.
But I think we need a bit more info
Some history on the hive, are these worker bees from the now drone laying queen or has something else happened?
Is the nuc a split from the hive
A timeline?

 

[Eddie_H]

Then unite them.
But I think we need a bit more info
Some history on the hive, are these worker bees from the now drone laying queen or has something else happened?
Is the nuc a split from the hive
A timeline?

Nuc was made up when Q in hive was doing very well

Since then that Q swarmed from hive, and now I have this seemingly DL Queen. Last workers to emerge from old (good) Queen would have been around end of July, so their 6 week lifespan would be drawing to a close. But current Q has produced some workers since but a lot of drones too

 

[Swarm]

Lots of poorly mated queens this year. Squish and unite.
I would put the nuc into a brood box and unite by using newspaper and a queen excluder that will trap the drones providing there's not so many they will clog it up.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Either find queen, introduce her to the gate post, unite, or shake out the whole hive a few yards from the present location, replace hive and frames, leave them settle then unite the nuc on top.

 

[pargyle]

Lots of poorly mated queens this year. Squish and unite.
I would put the nuc into a brood box and unite by using newspaper and a queen excluder that will trap the drones providing there's not so many they will clog it up.

Yes ... that would be my preferred plan of action. Tip the drones out somewhere well away and they will be gone .. not a lot of use now. If the colony wants drones over winter (and some do keep a few - goodness knows why ?) they will keep what they want.

 

[Eddie_H]

Either find queen, introduce her to the gate post, unite, or shake out the whole hive a few yards from the present location, replace hive and frames, leave them settle then unite the nuc on top.

I assume you suggest doing that to get rid of the dud Queen? But she’s not clipped so she will find her way back to hive

Can I ask why you’d replaCe hive and frames?... won’t that give them too much work to do drawing out the frames at this time of the year?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I assume you suggest doing that to get rid of the dud Queen? But she’s not clipped so she will find her way back to hive

Can I ask why you’d replaCe hive and frames?... won’t that give them too much work to do drawing out the frames at this time of the year?

shake her away from the hive, she won't find her way back - it is you that said you only had the one hive (plus the nuc) so I was just giving you an alternative way of uniting the two if you couldn't find the queen. The reason I told you to replace hive and frames (I just assumed you would know I meant the comb in the frames as well) is that you would still have the whole colony and drawn comb sans queen to unite to the nuc

 

[Eddie_H]

shake her away from the hive, she won't find her way back - it is you that said you only had the one hive (plus the nuc) so I was just giving you an alternative way of uniting the two if you couldn't find the queen. The reason I told you to replace hive and frames (I just assumed you would know I meant the comb in the frames as well) is that you would still have the whole colony and drawn comb sans queen to unite to the nuc

Oh right.., I just thought if she wasn’t clipped, she could return to the hive.

The method you suggest might come in handy, as I haven’t yet spotted her during inspections.

So....... when the bees return to the new hive/frames/comb, how long is ideal before uniting? Could I do it immediately or better to wait a few days so that the bees are more likely to accept the other Queen?

 

[mbc]

I hardly ever bother finding a dlq before uniting with a queen right nuc and don't seem to get problems, that's the whole point of the newspaper, let's the bees one by one get accustomed to the queen with the best pheromones.

 

[mdotb]

A point of language:

Replace: put back where you took them from.

vs.

Replace: get rid of and substitute new versions.


I believe JBM intended the former, and Eddie_H has interpreted as the latter.

If I'm wrong on either point I'm sure they can say so, but wanted to highlight the potential difference.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

So....... when the bees return to the new hive/frames/comb, how long is ideal before uniting?

five minutes - possibly less