I was checking on a package of bees I installed into a 5 frame nuc. The nuc is 3 weeks old now. Ok, so I see eggs, larva, capped brood, find a beautiful Italian queen and discover 3 supersedure cells. There are about 3- 3.5 frames of bees in the 5 frame, to small to split. They do have room.
I thought the queen was doing a fine job, however the bees appear to think differently. I decided to take no action and let Mother Nature run her course. My thinking is the bees know best. This is a support hive, not genetic quality.
Any thoughts?
Van
You did right. The consensus is about 60% of packages supercede the introduced queen the first season.
Do you know how packages are made? The are shook from multiple hives. The bees and queen that come in a package are not a colony. They are mostly strangers. For these reasons packages in inexperienced hands are prone to failures such as dead queens in cages, queens inexplicably lost, and supercedures can be common. With a package the queen needs to be helped through the melding period. This can take up to a month until the box becomes stable and functioning as a colony. I tell folks who are getting packages the following:
- There may be more than one queen in the package. The one in the cage and the the one(s) that got shook in with the bees. It is best to keep the cage corked for at least a day and go looking for a walking queen before proceeding with your preferred introduction method.
- The bees and queen are strangers. They are not a colony. It is not an instant hive. Far from it. Packages need attention to get established.
- Check on the queen every 5 days for 25 to 30 days. A full brood cycle. During this period the beekeeper needs to destroy any queen cells. This helps the queen establish reign and get the colony to stabilize around her.
- If after those 25 to 30 they are still trying to replace her, then she has to be defective. Pinch her, toss her, and replace her.
-> Sell only nucleus colonies to the novice and intermediates. Sell the packages only to the experienced and commercial operators.
Packages are a great product. I like them in a pinch. However the above basic information is often missed in the marketing and instructions. Setting up newbees for problems and failures. This is really similar to the difference between buying something that is -ready to use (nucleus)- VS buying something that there is -some assembly required (package) -.
And yet, two years ago when I was looking into starting beekeeping, that was the lion share of the advice I read. If I hadn't been short on cash, and caught a swarm, then I would have bought a package. I see, now, the deficiencies.
I do not know, I have bought neither. But it seems to me that a nucleus colony would be light years ahead of a package, so to speak, even though it may be a few dollars more in price. I suppose nucleus colonies are not shipped and packages are, making the difference for some decision makers?
Phillip Hall
The nuc is well ahead of a package, also it is good to acquire bees as local as possible as the are survivors in your environment.