I have six hives that I started three years ago. This March, I want to start some nucs but I'm not sure of the best way to accomplish a quick start up.
I've read several post about creating nucs including MB's splits but my question surrounds how best to get a queen in each nuc.
Should I let the bees raise their own queen?
Should I purchase queens for each nuc?
Are queens available in March?
For me, I usually find some swarm calls in a hive. I find the queen (mark them whenever you find them) and remove her. I leave at least two queen cells in there. I then remove the other frames that have queen cells and put them in nucs. I put a minimum of 2 queen cells per nuc and add another frame of eggs, larva, and nurse bees. I then sometimes shake a fame or two of bees in the nuc as well (the cooler the weather the more bees I put in there). Put some syrup on them and walk away. I'll check them in a week or so (depending on the age of the queen cell) to make sure the queen emerged. If she has leave her alone for another coupel of weeks before checking her laying pattern. If the pattern looks good mark her and make note of her age and let the hive do it's thing.
Once the nuc is formed I will also use them as breeding nucs for grafted queens I make from my better queens. I really like having back up queens and frames of brood, pollen, and honey for any needs I may have as a beekeeper. An established nuc is also a great place to put a purchased queen so you can review her work before proceeding. I've also found purchased queens are better accepted in nucs than double deeps.
Thanks for all of the great info! Sounds like I may have misunderstood what I was reading about creating nucs. I really make sense to make your nuc using queen cells that have been started in your existing hive.
Thanks again!
Check out purchasing this video. I think well worth the money.
http://www.beeworks.com/view_DVD/queenrearing.html (http://www.beeworks.com/view_DVD/queenrearing.html)
The advantage to letting them raise their own is they will mate with local stock and you will get stock that is better acclimatized. You will probably also end up with better queens as they will have time to mate and lay for a while, which makes better queens, instead of being banked as soon as they lay a few eggs.
The down side is that it takes them four weeks to get a laying queen.