Hi peoples,
What's the minimum amount of bee's that can get a colony going?
Let me explain further, I bought 2 bee packages but when I picked them up %95 of the bees were dead, the queen was alive thou along with a handful of bees. (long story but the bees were in transit for far too long when I picked them up from the seller, I got my money back sad for the bees thou..)
My other hives are over an hour away and I am busy with work so I unable to get some bees and brood from other hives to help boost them up.
I placed the around 500-1000 bees along with the queen in a nuc box, I gave them a frame feeder full of sugar syrup and some feederbee patties for protein.
My question out of interest will this limited number of bees start up a colony or will they dwindle off and day?
The cold weather has not been on my side though..18.c during the day in Melbourne..
Ben
I've nursed a handful of bees through Winter so a thousand should be doable now that it's Spring. Keep them warm, fed, and properly bee spaced for now. They can grow to be a full hive before Winter returns. Add brood frames now too. Any drawn frames you give them will also help out.
depends on where you live, climate, and time of year, but ive heard colonys can get started with less than 100 bees. I had a nuc going with less than 200 until they got robbed and killed queen