I started with 2 Italian Nucs three years ago. The end of that first year those 2 nucs turned into two double deep 10s and a double nuc.
The three wintered over just fine. Those three turned into (6) 10 frame hives 4 boxes high and a handful of nucs the second year. I gave 2 double 10 frame hives to my brother in Philly, did some splits to try to keep them from swarming, then crushed some queens and combined them in the late fall. That got me back down to 3 hives and 2 nucs for last winter. So far it looks like all five have made it and I already split one nuc. I should have some Queen Cells in the works, and can probably do some more splitting later this week and add a QC to the other half of the split hives if it looks like the extra room I gave them came too late.
It?s a little early for splits I imagine, but I can recombine them, or keep them going with a frame here and there from the other hives if the queens come back unmated, and they need to try again. If the first attempt fails, the second round of queens should be prime time for mating. In late March or April.
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