Stores from queenless nuc

[taurus]

I had a nuc that lost their queen over the winter. I checked them again today and no sign of brood - the bees were distinctively sounding unhappy.

I have shaken them out and dismantled the hive and they are finding their way into the other hive.(All went well apart from one little darling falling down my welly.)

The nuc had 4 frames full of stores, one with a small section of mould. I have no reason to suspect disease but want to play safe. Is there anything I can do with the frames of stores? I am wondering if they can be used to put in a new nuc as stores - or should they be discarded?

Or have they any use in a bait hive once bees move in there?

Ta!

 

[B+.]

I had a nuc that lost their queen over the winter. I checked them again today and no sign of brood - the bees were distinctively sounding unhappy.

I have shaken them out and dismantled the hive and they are finding their way into the other hive.(All went well apart from one little darling falling down my welly.)

The nuc had 4 frames full of stores, one with a small section of mould. I have no reason to suspect disease but want to play safe. Is there anything I can do with the frames of stores? I am wondering if they can be used to put in a new nuc as stores - or should they be discarded?

Or have they any use in a bait hive once bees move in there?

Ta!

If there is no disease, you could use them in a number of ways (certainly don't discard frames of honey).
You could put them to one side and give them to your hive in the autumn (already prepared winter stores).
I wouldn't use them in a bait hive because they'd just get robbed out to no purpose. However, if you end up with a nuc / swarm, they would be useful to add to their winter stores.
There are lots of posts on the subject of attracting swarms but its all down to luck in the end.

 

[taurus]

Well now I am confused!

I had to go into work for a couple of hours so I left the bees clustering around the site of their old hive which was next door to a double brood colony that I was hoping they would beg their way into.

I took the frames out of the old nuc and put them into a sealed brood box on the other side of the garden - about 15 foot away.

When I came home the bees are all patiently sitting outside the new brood box waiting to be let into it. As calm as anything - I picked them up with no bee suit or veil and they were totally not bothered by my presence.

I thought they weren't meant to able to find a hive if it was moved more than three foot. Presumably they can smell their frames inside the new brood box.

 

[beeno]

Begging your way into another colony usually entails bearing gifts. Maybe it was just a case of smelling the honey, getting cold and torpid and nowhere else to go.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Did you smoke them well and leave them for 10 minutes before you shook them out?

 

[taurus]

Did you smoke them well and leave them for 10 minutes before you shook them out?

Nope. Was I meant to? I gave them a good talking to and left them for a while whilst I got the new box out of the shed.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes. The way they get into a new hive is to bribe their way in with the honey they ate when you smoked them.
A foreign bee with nothing to give will not be allowed in

 

[taurus]

Thank you. I shall try again in a few days. They've all gone back into the new brood box now - even though it was a fair distance from their previous location.

 

[pargyle]

Why tip them out ... Newspaper combine them with the other hive. You wll need a couple of bits of plywood or correx to cover the frames either side - or at worst - a couple of bits of cardboard with a weight on top.

Once the know each other either put a bee escape on your normal crown board with the nuc on top - or a clearer board if you have one. When they have left the nuc - remove it.

Much kinder, less stress on the bees and they are up and working in the new hive without any delay.

 

[Beefriendly]

Why tip them out ... Newspaper combine them with the other hive.

As OP mentioned queenless...probably have, or in the stages of getting, laying workers...OP did right thing in shaking them out...possibility of any pseudoqueens killing the laying queen with a newspaper amalgamation. Bad advice!

 

[Millet]

As OP mentioned queenless...probably have, or in the stages of getting, laying workers...OP did right thing in shaking them out...possibility of any pseudoqueens killing the laying queen with a newspaper amalgamation. Bad advice!

I did the same as you mention last year and it worked a treat.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Nevertheless uniting can work provided the Q+ colony is strong and the laying worker hive weak

 

[pargyle]

As OP mentioned queenless...probably have, or in the stages of getting, laying workers...OP did right thing in shaking them out...possibility of any pseudoqueens killing the laying queen with a newspaper amalgamation. Bad advice!

Perhaps you should read the rest of the thread ... properly. No mention of any eggs or brood - let alone layng workers. It's a nuc that he was shaking out not a full colony and so far that failed ...

Nothing wrong with trying to combine them properly in these circumstances ...

I'm not going to bother responding to you in the future - your are clearly up to your old tricks looking for an argument ... play with yourself.