I was reading about artificial supercedure to help control varroa by interrupting the brood cycle in July. I don't have a big varroa problem, but I want to increase my colonies. I figure I could do that, or just start another 5 frame nuc. My question is; if I do the supercedure, will the temporary absence of the queen affect the fall honey production in that hive very much, or do the bees continue with the production anyway?
If you time it correctly, you can actually increase your production. They will gather more nectar when they have no brood to care for.
When I checked one of my hives today, I found several queen cells. I think they might be supersedure cells. I also saw the queen. I have had her for two years; I think she is three. I started a nuc with two of the queen cells and a queen cup. I left the old queen with the hive and a couple other queen cells. In another hive (nuc from this spring), I started a nuc with brood and some eggs. That hive is so strong, if I had a couple more boxes, I would have done a full split instead of a nuc!