Uniting nuc to main hive

[Voltemand]

I have a new laying queen in a nuc taken from the main hive, and will remove the old queen and unite. What's the best time frame for removing the old queen before the unite. Some books say straight away, some to leave queenless for one or two days. I've had success and failure with all three, so knowledgeable advice would be gratefully received.

 

[Cazza]

Hi Voltemand
Personally I unite with newspaper as soon as I have culled the queen. This works for me and I don't recall any problem with this over several years.
Cazza

 

[oliver90owner]

Two colonies - usually straight away.

Nucs - usually when the main colony is hopelessly queenless.

But depends on the prevailing conditions at the time, of course.

RAB

 

[Voltemand]

Thanks Cazza and Olive. Diverse opinions, but maybe for different circumstances. Uniting after an artificial swarm I'd do it straight away. My worry is uniting nucs with expensive Buckfasts to different strong stock, and I suppose there it's safer (as I have at times in the past) to remove the old queen at least a couple of weeks before the unite.

 

[Eyeman]

Uniting colonies is never without some risk.
A good tip someone gave me was to manufacture a 4" square cage to place over the queen and pen her onto the brood frame with some workers. I use this when directly uniting 2 nucs (one Q- other Q+) with an icing sugar dusting, lots of smoke and without newspaper.
Keep cage on for 2 days then check all is well and let her out.
THis is my belts and braces approach.
Alec

 

[Voltemand]

Latest update. One of the nucs went drone-laying - see separate thread.

The other unite successful. I united by putting new queenright Buckfast nuc beneath old hive, removed queen from old hive and paper-united immediately. All well, and still well.