newbie in a pickle

[fox403]

OK received a nuc from jerry Norton from isle of man yesterday, jerry kept in touch though out the order and has been great! so nuc landed yesterday had smoker in hand ready to go, opened the nuc and thought blo--dy hell I couldn’t see any frames for the billions of bees on them so managed to clear the bees enough to see one frame, gentle pulling it out of the box by now bees were pouring out of the nuc,so a quick grab at the smoker ( sh*te its out ) so carried on putting the frame into the hive that’s when I found out that the hive was a commercial not a national so thought mmm by now the sky was getting blacker with bees, so lowered frame on ground lucky hive I had next to it was a national so quickly started getting frames into there as family came around the corner to see how I was getting on, they didn’t stay long by the evening all had settled and they seem the most fantastic blackest bees ever seen just one strange thing when came home from work tonight the bees seem to split into 3 groups and are taken pollen into the 3 hives which are 4 feet apart, leaving them for a week to settle before I go into hives checking for queens

 

[For want of a better word]

A salutory tale indeed.

Stick to one type of hive, or at least something moderately interchangeable a la WBC / National

I would leave well alone for 7 days, then with a smoker primed and working and a cover cloth, inspect each hive, no rush.... if the queen was marked and you find her keep her in her hive with a QE on top ( do not forget the eke for bee space) and then stick a sheet of newspaper ( The Financial Times seems to bee preferred!) with a few slits in it on top of the QE then the box of bees... that should be queenless, and then newspaper again and the next box of bees, crown board and then roof.
Inspect in 7 days. hopefully bees will have merged back together.

Place you other hives a good pace away... or set them up as bait hives well away!

BUT who am I to give advice...... you will now get half a dozen replies suggesting another approach ..........

 

[mandabow]

OK received a nuc from jerry Norton from isle of man yesterday, jerry kept in touch though out the order and has been great! so nuc landed yesterday had smoker in hand ready to go, opened the nuc and thought blo--dy hell I couldn’t see any frames for the billions of bees on them so managed to clear the bees enough to see one frame, gentle pulling it out of the box by now bees were pouring out of the nuc,so a quick grab at the smoker ( sh*te its out ) so carried on putting the frame into the hive that’s when I found out that the hive was a commercial not a national so thought mmm by now the sky was getting blacker with bees, so lowered frame on ground lucky hive I had next to it was a national so quickly started getting frames into there as family came around the corner to see how I was getting on, they didn’t stay long by the evening all had settled and they seem the most fantastic blackest bees ever seen just one strange thing when came home from work tonight the bees seem to split into 3 groups and are taken pollen into the 3 hives which are 4 feet apart, leaving them for a week to settle before I go into hives checking for queens

did you inspect the frames? if they were chockablock for some time they may well have raised some queen cells, may have swarmed into other hives, 3rd hive could even be a virgin caste!! agree with icanhopit essentially, but be sure to check thoraghly for queen cells and or queens before recombining.

 

[fox403]

OK I hear what your saying,, but just a thought what if I leave queen-less bees in the other national, use a frame with brood and one with honey from the queen hive and swap it, then do the paper on top queen-less and unite two non-queen hives must been plenty bees for 7 frames ? would bees taken pollen into hive with no queen ?

on a different note I was quoted by someone off here £190 for a nuc to me was a bit to much so shopped elsewhere,week later tryed to sell the bees to someone else on here who wanted 2 nucs for £200+£40 for nuc box each this is not including delivery, im not saying how much people should sell nucs for but I would hate to think people are trying to make a profit out of someone new to the hobby!

 

[Chris B]

Your problem is you attempted to transfer the frames before allowing the bees to orientate to their new home. Just opening the travel box and immediately loading frames into a hive is a recipe for mass confusion and it's no wonder the bees are all over the place. The way to do it is take the bung out and let the bees fly from the travel box first, and don't attempt to transfer frames for a day.

Don't leave the broodless hives in place. Move them away ASAP and the flying bees will relocate to the proper place. The bees have not swarmed. You don't need newspaper. The queen will be on the frames you installed.

 

[fox403]

chris if i left the bees in that nuc then opend it they might have swarmed ? but good idea if i want keep them to one hive to move the others and should fly back to main hive,,

 

[For want of a better word]

Good point CB..... should have put |NUC/travel box on the stance for a day..THEN transferred new bees following evening, then left them alone for 7 days.
You could shake the flying bees off the frames onto the front of the hive, before quickly removing the other........... hives??????????

 

[For want of a better word]

chris if i left the bees in that nuc then opend it they might have swarmed ?

all rushed out to spend a penny, like a load of old cronies on a jolly to the seaside after a pub lunch!!!!

 

[Chris B]

chris if i left the bees in that nuc then opend it they might have swarmed ?

Not a chance. Your vendor sounds reliable. They don't swarm unless they've got sealed queen cells (unless Carnies?) and they wouldn't have been shipped with any queen cells at all. It takes 8 days to get a sealed QC from scratch.