Uniting a nuc. with a full brood box

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fatshark

Field Bee
Joined
May 4, 2009
Messages
985
Reaction score
1
Location
Fife & Ardnamurchan
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
10
I have a nuc. with a newly mated laying queen which I'd like to unite with a queenless colony in a standard hive. The nuc. is small and the colony is weakened having been queenless for at least 3 weeks (the hive had a virgin queen on the 16th but I think she didn't manage to return from her mating flight).

Once I'm certain the colony is queenless how should I unite them to avoid fighting and give the new queen the best chance to get established? Hooper recommends misting (water) the two frames from the nuc. with the queen in between them and inserting them into the middle of the queenless colony, again after misting.

The nuc. is a "Hedgerow Peter Special" with a fixed base, so I can't unite through a sheet of newspaper.

With thanks.

--
fatshark
 
Have you got a spare BB to transfer the nuc into then the news paper trick
 
Add a few drops of either vanilla essence or lemon grass oil to your tepid water if you're going to unite the two. Couple of light squirts to each side of each brood frame.

It works well and is a method I use frequently.
 
Make a board to fit the top of the nuc and strong enough to support the brood box above as this is a pretty common situation.

Then use newspaper.

PH
 

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