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Author Topic: Special built honey tasting nuc?  (Read 983 times)

Offline Bob Wilson

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Special built honey tasting nuc?
« on: June 03, 2022, 08:21:38 am »
I have a friend who gets this sweet, dark, buttery molasses flavored honey in his area. So I am planning on building a regular nuc that will make their own queen from a frame of eggs and putting it out there.
If I stock it with a lot of capped brood, shouldn't they fill me 3 nice frames of that honey by the time they produce a laying queen? (I could also use that queen.)

Online BeeMaster2

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Re: Special built honey tasting nuc?
« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2022, 09:41:59 am »
 Bob,
It depends on how many field bees are in it and how strong the flow is.
Jim Altmiller
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Online Ben Framed

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Re: Special built honey tasting nuc?
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2022, 10:34:03 am »
I agree Jim

Resources:
Just curious; How long does this particular nectar come in for this type honey? What is the nectar source? Bob,  Do you have the resources to place a producing hive ready to go instead?
Phillip
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Bob Wilson

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Re: Special built honey tasting nuc?
« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2022, 07:19:40 pm »
Jim...
 If there are a lot of emerging brood, and no queen laying, will they graduate the nurse bees early into the field? I suppose I will need to shake in a lot of bees from other frames, but those are mostly nurse bees also.
Ben...
Yes. I have the resources. I am not sure the nectar source. We are trying to discover it. Last year it seemed a June flow, when usually there is none. I never saw it in my area.

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Re: Special built honey tasting nuc?
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2022, 07:51:33 am »
Bob,
If you drop in a bunch of nurse bees and you have a lot of capped brood, then the older nurse bees can then switch jobs and become the field bees.
Swarms are mostly nurse bees with a bunch of scouts. As soon as the new brood start hatching the older nurse bees switch jobs and become the field bees.
Jim Altmiller
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Special built honey tasting nuc?
« Reply #5 on: June 04, 2022, 08:11:17 am »
Quote
Ben...
Yes. I have the resources. I am not sure the nectar source. We are trying to discover it. Last year it seemed a June flow, when usually there is none. I never saw it in my area.

Whatever you decide I hope it works out for you Bob. Let us know if you find the nectar source.

Phillip
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline TheHoneyPump

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Re: Special built honey tasting nuc?
« Reply #6 on: June 04, 2022, 10:19:28 am »
On a flow with no brood to feed, a nuc box fills up remarkably fast.  If it is mostly the honey which you want, you might want to consider putting out a full sized box. Perhaps even a double deep.
You could put your queenless nuc sized colony, with large brood frames, into the bottom of a double deep.  Set that out and forget about it for 4 to 6 weeks.  Assuming a good flow period through that, When you go back to it there will be either:  a nice queenrite hive full of honey or a nice laying worker hive full of honey.  Either way, you will have a harvest. 
When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.

 

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