When splitting a strong colony into a nuc how long should they be left queen-less before adding the new queen. With the goal being acceptance I am looking for the optimal time so that they are completely willing to accept her therefore I am planning to leave the nuc's queen-less for some period of time. I just don't know what amount of time is best. The conundrum is that I don't want to leave the nuc queen-less too long and have them produce queen cells on their own.
Thoughts?
David
Twenty four hours is plenty. And leave queen in her cage for about four days. The bees will usually release her before then.
My goal is to leave them queenless overnight. That could be 12 hours or 24 hours, but overnight usually seems to do the trick...
Thank you guys (and girls) for this info.... it's exactly what I was looking for.
David
What happens to a hive when you split and don't wait the 12-24 hours? I had a nuc prepared for the queen and when I got there to install her all the bees had perrished. In my haste I cleaned out the nuc shook a few frames of bees in and put the queen cage in. I am now concerned that since I did this all at the same time I may have fouled something up a bit.
Please advise.
David