I plan to add queen cells to nucs to get queens mated. Once they are laying I will want to introduce them to existing hives. I made a board for newspaper combines but in some cases I will want to simply take three frames out of the nuc and place them into a full hive. If the new queen is on the middle of the three frames added will the bees generally accept her? Does a three frame transfer work even with medium frames?
Quote from: twb on February 06, 2009, 07:34:30 PM
I plan to add queen cells to nucs to get queens mated. Once they are laying I will want to introduce them to existing hives. I made a board for newspaper combines but in some cases I will want to simply take three frames out of the nuc and place them into a full hive. If the new queen is on the middle of the three frames added will the bees generally accept her? Does a three frame transfer work even with medium frames?
If the hive to recieve the queen has been queenless for at least 24 hours it should work fine. Having the queen on the middle frame is best. If you run into problems you might consider using a push in queen cage thats about 4 inches square.
I requeen using nucs alot. I make the main hive queenless early one day, then slip the nuc frames with queen into the middle of the main hive box in the late afternoon/early evening. Sometimes I wait until the next day to install the nuc frames. I normally like to make joins in the evening just before sunset. I've never had a queen not be accepted this way so far.
Silly question maybe, but I am interested in this form of requeening. Do you not have trouble with the bees on the nuc frames fighting with the existing hive bees? Is this maybe the idea so the queen is "lost in the chaos? Thanks in advance.
Quote from: jdpro5010 on February 13, 2009, 05:22:02 PM
Silly question maybe, but I am interested in this form of requeening. Do you not have trouble with the bees on the nuc frames fighting with the existing hive bees? Is this maybe the idea so the queen is "lost in the chaos? Thanks in advance.
Normally when using a nuc to requeen a newspaper combine is the desire method. In the way RayMarler is doing it works for the following reasons:
1. He is waiting long enough for the entire hive to know it is queenless.
2. Then by moving out 5 frames of bees into a super and replacing them with the 5 frames from the nuc he has placed the frames with the queen into the center of the brood chamber where the queen belongs.
3. The upheavel from moving the bees around causes a great deal of confusion. So when the bees get over the confusion they find they have a queen again and a lot more bees.
4. The main thing is that What's inside the hive belongs there. Putting a box atop a hive still has the bees in 2 separate blocks so they fight. By mixing the new bees with the old bees and putting them into the middle of the hive means they belong there, so they are accepted because they are
inside the home group.
I hope that explains it well enough.
Great advice. I've heard of spraying the bees with sugar water when combining. Is that a good idea?
Quote from: heaflaw on February 26, 2009, 11:26:14 PM
Great advice. I've heard of spraying the bees with sugar water when combining. Is that a good idea?
Always helps, never hurts. Just don't drown them.