I am getting my new queen Friday and I planned on making a new nuc to start a new hive. I have read about doing this but have never done it and am kinda nervous. I plan on putting 1 frame capped brood, 1 frame of brook in different stages of development, 1 to 1/2 frames of honey and if possible pollen, and 2 frames of empty comb. Is this correct?
My question is if I get the queen Friday in the afternoon, when should I pull the frames from the other hives and let them sit queenless before I insert her into the nuc?
Sounds like a small nuc in the making. You can let them sit queenless for a few hours (like 2 hours, you don't want them making queen cups in that time). Keep your new queen caged until they let her out or when you check them in a couple of days let her out then if she has not been released by the nuc bees. Be sure and feed.
I'd pull the frames the evening before you add the caged queen. Let them be queenless overnight.
Leave the queen in her cage for at least one day before you release her. I don't use the candy. Just pull the plug and (holding your thumb over the cage entrance) put the cage back in the hive for an hour to make sure the queen is out.
I haven't bought a queen in years (or any bees for that matter).
I started to let all my splits raise their own queens, partly because I was curious about the process, and also because I had lucked onto a swarm of really good wild bees that I wanted to increase. And, I must admit, I really hate paying for something that I can make myself.
Sure, your nuc gets started faster with a "store bought" queen, but even with one, I never was really able to raise up a nuc in time for my honey flow. And if your working toward the next year, then a few weeks doesn't make any difference at all.
I think missing a brood cycle might be the best management tool for reducing mites. Also, in the years that I've been doing that, those splits make it through to the next spring in much better shape than the parent hives. My best honey hives are always the nucs from the previous year.
Is it possible to start the nuc in the same bee yard that you took the frames of brood and bees from? I'm picking up two queens tomorrow and plan to start the nucs about 20 feet from the hives. I'm worried about the worker bees moving back to the orignial hives and ending up with queens and brood in empty nucs with no nurse or worker bees. I don't mean to steal the thread, it just popped into my mind as I was reading the OP.
BeeBoy, yes it's possible and it's probably what most people do. I just have one bee yard (aka the backyard). My splits are raised close to the parent hives. I've started numerous splits within 3 feet away from the parent. I suspect you could do them even closer if you wanted. Just keep an eye out for robbing and reduce the entrances down if you see it.
Yes the field bees will return to the parent hive and that's why it's probably best to start splits with 3 frames of brood if you have them. The nurse bees will stay with the split. 3 frames of young bees makes a nice split. 2 frames will work and even 1 frame of brood can work. However when you drop under 3 frames, it seems to really slow down the growth rate of the splits. Don't know why, it just does. However the splits have all summer to grow at this point and hence 2 framers are OK if you are low on bees.