Spring Management of over winter colonies / Making

Nuc’s

• Beekeepers want their hives strong and be able to split for Nuc’s

• Early Spring is a good time to clean out the colony of any trash that may be found, mouse nest’s, dead bees, etc.

• Check for existing food stores that exist in the colony…

• FEB / MARCH

• Feed colonies that a light in stores… If the weather is warm, this can be done easily with a in hive feeder (division Board feeder), or a hive top feeder, or feeder can place inside a hive body on top of the cluster… Some beekeepers will cut a hole in the top to place a feeder jar or can directly over the cluster.

• If weather is cool, you can feed using sugar boards…

• These should be place directly above the cluster, and can provide emergency feed for the colony if needed… Can help prevent starvation in cool/cold weather.

• If the weather is cold, we have been successful using a sugar candy mixture, placed directly over the cluster, as they have ready access to the feed.

We mix the dry sugar with a limited amount of water, end result is so thick we just take a scoop and place on top of wax paper / newspaper directly over the cluster..

• Seems like more colonies die in late Feb thru March than any other time. So is important to be aware of how much the colonies weigh, and how much honey/syrup they have in reserve.

• Pollen patties can also be fed to jump start some brood rearing

• MARCH• Late March we start checking colonies for

strength and weight… • Remove the bottom box if empty, and bring

back to shop for repairs/painting,,, will be needing these box’s by mid April.

• If necessary for doubles that are really strong, we will reverse the brood box’s..

• We continue feeding colonies to boost brood rearing in advance of splitting for increase.

• April Task’s• We usually start making splits(Nuc’s) by the

second week of April..• We equalize colonies for strength. giving

brood to weaker/smaller colonies and saving all other brood for increase.

Nuc’s

• Nuc’s can be used to replace over-wintered colonies that did not survive.

• Provide additional income to help offset spring expense’s.

• Can be used as a method of swarm prevention.

• Break of brood cycle, can help with mite management.

• Time saving tip.

We do not spend a lot of time trying to locate the original queen, after going thru the colony, if queen is not located, We do the following.

Quick method of making Nuc’s

After inspection of colony, we place the frames of brood that is to stay with original queen in the bottom brood box. We then fill with frames of comb/foundation and a feeder.

All frames of remaining brood are looked at again, and then shake all the bees off the frames, and frames are placed into a empty brood box.

We then place a queen excluder on top of the bottom box, then place the box with frames of extra brood on top.

We go back the next day then just have to remove the top box, as it will be full of the nurse bees on the frames, and then we use those frames of bees to make up nuc’s.

We add a feeder of syrup to original colony, replacing empty box with drawn comb, at least 2 frames to foundation… use this as a way to rotate out older combs.

We leave (3) frames of brood with original colony have frames of honey/pollen avail.

• We usually use 2 or 3 frames of brood/bees for the nuc… seems that the smaller size (2), accept the queens easily.

• We feed all our nuc’s to insure a steady amount of feed to help drawing foundation and to insure plenty of food for brood rearing.

• If the nuc’s are made up in early April, they will production colonies for us in June.

• We normally move our nuc’s to different yards then the parent colonies to help prevent the field bees from returning to original colony.

• If we are able to make real early nuc’s, (Late March), we at times will place the nuc in a brood box, and place on top of either double screens, or inner cover directly over strong colonies, to help maintain heat in the nuc’s from the colony below it.

• This is another way of making up nuc’s if you want to keep them in the same yard. We normally would place the entrance in the opposite direction as the parent colony.

Mated Queens / or Cells

• With mated queens Locate a reliable source. Must be able to

provide queens at the time of year that you will need them.

Acceptance of queenWe usually keep candy end of cage corked for

4-5 days, at which time we destroy any queen cells found on frames in the nuc.

Release queen onto combs of bees. Can see how the bees react to her…

Mated queens should be laying within 4-7 days after they had been released into the nuc..

Queen Cells

When we use cells, we like to have frames of young bees in the nuc.

We place the ripe queen cell in the nuc the day AFTER we pulled the brood. The cell should hatch within 24 hrs.

It normally takes at least 7-10 days after hatching before the young queen will start laying eggs.

We have real good acceptance using ripe queen cells.

With cells, it takes 3-5 days longer to start seeing eggs in nuc verse’s caged mated queen.

Nuc’s raise queen

If there are eggs in the frames of brood given to a nuc, they will attempt to raise a new queen.

If nuc’s are made up early in the spring season, the bees can successfully rear their own queen, but it amount of time for them do due this is a negative factor.

Nuc Management

Nuc’s are kept in the 4-5 frame box until all frames are in use by the bees.

We like to feed our nuc’s using a jug on top fitting in a hole cut in the lid.

Transfer into a normal size hive body within 3 weeks, as the frames of brood will be hatching soon, and will need room.

Depending on the amount of time before honey flow is expected to start We can use the colony as a single story Add another hive body and let them grow

into double. Add a medium and run them that way thru

the flow.