hyperthetical question

[jeff4051]

If we had a hot long summer!!!!!!!!!! Took one frame brood with workers and a frame of honey syrup fondant etc introduced a new Queen would it work or would it be insufficient to survive come the winter, or wouldn't it survive at all????????

 

[victor meldrew]

How long is a piece of string ?
Do this early enough ,maybe but I'd go for a minimum of 3 frames to be stand half a chance!
VM


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[Finman]

If we had a hot long summer!!!!!!!!!! Took one frame brood with workers and a frame of honey syrup fondant etc introduced a new Queen would it work or would it be insufficient to survive come the winter, or wouldn't it survive at all????????

That is a beginning of mating nuc. Proplem is that bees return to home.
Brood frames may catch cold. Brood frames should be that they are just emerging.
Like Victor says, 3 frames is minimum.

That small nuc should be on the bigger hive that it gets heat via floor.

.

 

[david fox]

the length of a piece of string is half the lenght x 2

 

[Arfermo]

Your idea would work providing you set it up with a very minimum of 3 frames, as said by others, with loads of larvae and eggs plus enough stores to keep 'em going. Any spaces should be filled with another frame of stores or a drawn frame if you have any. When taking the frames from another hive, it essential you try to remove the flying bees if you can (I hold it in air away from the hive and they buzz off quite quickly) and leave enough nurse bees hanging on to manage the housework and to release the (clipped Q?) from the introduction cage. I also shake in extra nurse bees from other frames just to make sure (might be a flyer or two included). After that, stuff the entrance with grass and leave the bees inside the nuc to chew their way out putting the new nuc as far away from where they started as poss. By the time they have created an exit hole (2 days or so min), with a little luck, the workers who have become flyers will not remember where they originated. The grass will also stop robbing. After that, put on a contact feeder.

This whole excercise should be done when the temp is not less than 15C.

 

[thebhoy]

the length of a piece of string is half the lenght x 2

or twice the length from one end to the middle

 

[Finman]

with loads of larvae and eggs plus enough stores to keep 'em going. .

What idea is to give eggs and larvae. Who nurses them and who forages pollen?
It takes 2-3 weeks that they will turn to bees. Nuc queen should make eggs.

That small nuc cannot keep brood warm.- expecially when bees return home.

 

[Arfermo]

What idea is to give eggs and larvae. Who nurses them and who forages pollen?
It takes 2-3 weeks that they will turn to bees. Nuc queen should make eggs.

That small nuc cannot keep brood warm.- expecially when bees return home.

Think about it again and read what I said. No need to forage for pollen if as I said stores are given. That includes pollen!!! As I also said, make sure nurse (non flying) bees are put in the box too. What's your problem - English!!!

 

[user 6228]

How long is a piece of string ?
Do this early enough ,maybe but I'd go for a minimum of 3 frames to be stand half a chance!
VM


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So a national brood box split five ways in early june would do what?

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

So a national brood box split five ways in early june would do what?

Make good firewood.

Dusty

 

[galileo]

Hi Jeff

I've just consulted my notes to ensure the below is correct.

Last year on September 28th, I united 2 six frame colonies into one national BB with a newly raised and very prolific queen, so they'd be fit for winter. I wanted to keep the second queen as insurance, because although she'd not been my best (daughter of my best), she was also newly reared and was laying pretty well. I couldn't spare enough bees to make a national nuc viable, so I decided to experiment a bit with a 6 frame dual (1 x 6 or 2 x 3) poly mating nuc, to see if I could use it to park a small colony over winter.

I'd strapped the tiny frames into standard frames and had them placed at the edges of the brood nest in both hives a week earlier, so that by the time it came to do the unite, 4 were fully drawn and holding a bit of stores. These came out and went into the nuc, along with the spare queen. I then shook some bees from the hive that was going out of service, onto a sheet and board, leading to the entrance of the nuc. Within 10 minutes, all the bees that were going in had gone in (probably around 1000), and I left them to it.

A week later, I checked the nuc and found that 2 frames were fully laid up, with pollen going in rapidly and a lovely miniature arch over the brood. The other two frames were filling with stores and the bees had drawn the 5th, and were stashing nectar in it.

Other than feeding 2:1 and giving them some nektapol/neopol early this season, I left them alone. They're doing well - slow but sure - and will probably be fit to burst out of the nuc within the next 2 weeks. The 6th frame is fully drawn and filled with stores and at last count at the weekend, had 4 frames of bias (2 wall to wall and 2 about 50%).

I think I'd be rather more inclined to do it this way than the way you hypothesise, but even with an atrocious winter/spring like the one we're still lamenting, it's possible to bring a tiny colony through.

Cheers

 

[user 6228]

Make good firewood.

Dusty

A national colony split 5 ways survives in all 5 sub colonies.

This is untreated (Autumn or Winter) and not autumn fed during the worst summer and worst spring. They consumed minimal stores over winter and not much fondant this spring. Each (then small) colony has made it and is going strong. One filled a brood and a half. Two of the others are probably brood and a half. All are on supers now...