I have a verry small swarm I have been nursing back to helth as a project...... Its been about a month and they still have not filled up 1 whole frame a week ago I added a frame of empty foundation inbetween the cluster and they started to build more comb for the colony then I grabed a frame of brood from one of my strong hives with the bees still on it I made sure not to move the queen she was on another frame in the box above..... My question is that this is all happining in my city back yard they are on the other ends of the yard but will the new frame of bees that were on the frame I moved over go back to the mother hive or will they acclimate to the nuc? Here are some pics of the nuc...
http://img291.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=p1070314.jpg
The young nurse bees will stay. The forging bees will return to the original hive. The extra brood and bees will give them a boost. You can further boost them by swapping places with a strong hive.
Steve
Great Idea..... thanks :-D
I had to do this last spring when, due to weather, I lost 3 hives. Between the 3 I found a total of a soft ball size of live worker bees and a queen. Between exchanging frames of brood for empty frames, feeding, and acting like a mother hen I managed to nurse the hive back to the point of successful overwintering. Instead of having 5 hives with a harvest I ended up with 2 hives 3 mediums in size and considered it a successful year all told.