Boosting nuc numbers

[Michael Bush]

>is there a way to make splits without foragers? just so the foragers go back to their old hive...

There are ways to maximize young bees in a split, but the simplest is to shake in extra bees.  Other methods are to take open brood and put it above an excluder.  The bees will move to it, leaving the queen behind.  You take those frames which should be almost all young bees, and put them in the split.  But I don't see that works much better than using open brood in the first place and shaking in extra bees from brood combs...

[BeeGinningBeek]

I just read somewhere you can put the frames in an open box next to the donor colony and wait 20 minutes, and then move to the new location

[Michael Bush]

>I just read somewhere you can put the frames in an open box next to the donor colony and wait 20 minutes, and then move to the new location

I don't see the advantage.  The field bees are going to drift either way.  Any time spent in a place other than it's final place is more bees that will orient to that place instead of the final place...

[chux]

On the splits I just did, I gently shook in three or four frames of bees off of brood comb. Closed the top of the nuc, and put it on a stand about 20 feet from the donor colony. That filled the nuc with bees. I put a little obstruction at the entrance to encourage reorientation, but I know that there will be many older/field bees that return to the donor colony. What I have left is probably mostly the younger/nurse bees. That's fine with me. My goal is for them to raise a new queen and then build up for winter. I will give them a little help along the way once that new queen gets going.

[GSF]

Beeginningbee, I don't think I quite understand your question. Someone will be made a forger if there isn't any. The present forgers will return to the site of the original hive as well.

[BeeGinningBeek]

Beeginningbee, I don't think I quite understand your question. Someone will be made a forger if there isn't any. The present forgers will return to the site of the original hive as well.

if you have 2 frames in a 5 frame nuc filled with foragers that will leave anyway, I would rather know that the day of making the nuc's, instead of coming back 3 days later and finding them dead

[biggraham610]

is there a way to make splits without foragers? just so the foragers go back to their old hive...

That's all that does go back to the old hive. The nurses have never been out, so when they orient the nuc is their home. That was my problem, too many foragers in the nuc. G