I'm officially a beek

[marksmith]

Picked up my 2 nucs today and installed them.

Couple things that I noticed. One nuc has capped and open brood. while the other has capped brood with very little open brood.  Neither one had eggs that I saw. (I was in a hurry. Got the smoker fired up and the nucs transferred into their new hives in just over 30 minutes) This weekend is supposed to be nice, I plan on opening them Sunday for a look @ how they are doing and if there are eggs present.

There are a few frames that I want to cull.  How is this done?  Should I wait for them to draw out some more frames so I can rotate them toward the outside of the broodnest then finally out of the hive?

How big of holes to put in a top feeder?  I poked some holes in a mason jar lid... but am concerned that they will drip over the brood nest and make a mess of things.

I have plastic frames that were given to me...... I've been thinking of placing wooden frames vs. the plastic ones to force these gals into making their own comb... Thoughts?  I have heard that bees hate plastic... but if they utilize it, what is the down side?



Thanks all for the advice.  This is going to be awesome!


Mark

[D Coates]

Congrats!

Personally, I wouldn't cull anything until your hive has gotten to full strength.  Once you're ready to cull move it to the outer edge to allow any brood to emerge them pull the frame out and put it in a swarm trap that you've got set up.  They'll find it and rob it out.  Once that's done the frame will act as bait for a swarm.

The holes I put in a hive top feeder are done with a thumb tack through a mason jar lid (about 10 to 15). I use plastic foundation and it works fine once it's drawn out.  I use drone brood plastic frames for IPM and I just bought some regular all plastic frames to try.  The drone frames have worked just fine for the 4 years I've been using them so far.  I anticipate the same for these frames as well.

These are my observations, others may disagree, but that's the great thing about beekeeping.  You get to do it the way that fits your style.

[Irwin]

Good for you mark I'm happy for you. :-D

[marksmith]

Good for you mark I'm happy for you. :-D

Thank you sir!

Sorry to hear your not working :(  Hopefully these 2 will prosper and I'll make a go at being a beekeeper.