Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: zan on September 21, 2005, 04:47:26 AM

Title: few bees
Post by: zan on September 21, 2005, 04:47:26 AM
I found my queen cells destroyed in both my hives,  nuc and deep and that’s good, I suppose.
But in nuc I have too few bees. I doubt they will survive winter. What can I do?
Title: few bees
Post by: stilllearning on September 21, 2005, 07:58:22 AM
sounds to me like you have two choices,
add some bees to the nuc or make sure the nuc is queenless
and add it to the hive, I am not sure with your country, but
by you asking at this time of year, I assume winter is approaching
you now.
Title: few bees
Post by: Michael Bush on September 21, 2005, 09:01:49 AM
If you have really bad winters there, I'd combine the nuc with the hive.  If you have short mild winters, you could try to boost the nuc with some capped brood and honey from the other hive.  Just don't weaken the other hive too much to get through the winter.

A newpaper combine is the standard method.  Take the lid off of the strong hive and put on a sheet of newspaper.  Put the nuc on top of that.  If the nuc isn't as wide as the strong hive then put a board on the side to cover the gap.
Title: Austin
Post by: zan on September 22, 2005, 03:58:35 AM
Here is temperature falls from 26 C (79 F) to 10 C (50 F) in one day. This is to low for opening the hives. I hope we will have still some sunny days this year.
How far are you from Austin, stilllerning?
Title: small cells
Post by: zan on September 22, 2005, 04:56:01 AM
Hi Michael! In this nuc I put one frame with the piece of thin wood on which i put some wax with the brush.
Title: few bees
Post by: stilllearning on September 22, 2005, 08:34:06 AM
some 400 miles from austin as the crow flies