Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: fadder on August 15, 2018, 05:15:46 am
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A beek near me sells capped brood by the frame. He also sells queens. I was thinking about buying three frames of capped brood( with nurse bees) and putting in a queen in a 5 frame nuc with two frames of drawn comb and feeding them heavy. What are your thoughts on this.
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Fadder,
That is basically how you build a Nuc so it should work just fine. If you already have several hives, it will have a better chance if you put it on top of another hive with a double screen board between them. The queen right pheromones protect the new hive until the new queen is established. If it is a Nuc over a regular hive, just put a board over the open half of the regular hive. If it is the only hive in the apiary, it will Bee good.
I have put just one frame of eggs and brood in a Nuc in an isolated area and they they were able to make their own queen. If I make splits like you are proposing in my apiary without a queen right hive below them, they rarely make it.
Jim
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A full frame of capped brood = 3 frames of bees so in short order you will need to add boxes or go to full size box. How much for frame of brood? Do you have any spare frames of drawn out comb and the other hardware you will need. The reason I ask is you will want to build hive numbers and strength fairly fast. Ask him if these were treated for varroa
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It will work with a strong well mated queen to overwinter this season!
Feed them well.
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One frame of brood and a frame of honey is how I set up my mating nucs. But they don't build up quickly. They will build up eventually if they don't fail.