Feeding comb honey to nuc

[Duane]

I have created a nuc, although it was late summer before I felt there were enough frames to create one.  I set it up in an 8 frame medium, placing a moveable partition in the middle.  It has a bottom reduced entrance and has 4 frames of brood.  I added one more frame they had started on, but have not made much more progress.  I noticed today, most of the brood has hatched out and didn't see much honey.  Previously there was some honey around each frame.  I have some cut comb honey I saved in the freezer from a prior hive which died, but don't think it was from disease.  I would like to feed it to them, but don't want them thinking the comb is part of their hive. 

What I was thinking is, I want to make it a top entrance for the winter for letting condensation out.  So I would put a solid board across the bottom entrance, raise the top with shims and reduce the entrance.  The partition, which currently reaches from bottom to top, will then have a small shim shaped gap, interior to the hive.  I would place the comb honey on the empty side.  Would the bees think the partition still suggests the nest area, and move the honey from the empty side to the nest side?

[D Coates]

Why not just feed them syrup?  It's a heck of a lot easier and won't crystalize.  I've fed comb from cut outs to hives successfully.  The way I do it is to put the honey on top of the inner cover, then put a 2" shim on top of that, then put the outer cover on there.  They'll clean it up pretty well but you have to make sure to break the comb up.  Leaving it intact and they'll not clean it but try to use it.  Make sure the comb is horizontal not vertical to minimize this too.

[jalentour]

Duane,
I started 2 medium nucs (7/1/15) with 5 frames of brood and five frames of old frozen honey. 
One hive ate a lot of the honey and is currently doing very well and I have added a third medium (5 frame).
The other is doing well and is still at 10 frames. 
It's a tough call.  A lot depends on the queen. 
I'm feeding now and will pull frames as they cap them.
Good luck, let me know how they do.
J

[chux]

You could use rubberbands to put the comb in a foundationless frame. Insert it into the NUC. They will feed off it, and it will bee right where they want it.

[Duane]

Well I had already put the comb honey on the empty side before the replies.  When I went back in, they had cleaned the comb up so well it looked like new comb.

Having never done a cutout, I hadn't thought of attaching the comb to a frame.  That sounded like a good plan.  Except my comb was cut out between wires and were small pieces.  So what I did then was to use thin narrow slivers of wood and skew the comb through the center thickness.  The wood was just long enough to fit in and use the wedge of the frame to hold it in place.  I put them all in laying on a cookie sheet, and then carefully stood it up and placed it in the hive.  Seemed to work pretty well.  I placed it next to the outside of their brood frames.  I looked later and they had taken some of the honey out, and removed some of the comb down to the sticks I had skewed through them.  Still standing with some honey in it.

So when adding comb outside of the area of their nest, they removed the honey in my case.  But makes more sense to just stick it in a frame.

Unfortunately it didn't appear to help them much.  I even took a frame of honey from another hive and added it.  I had narrowed the entrance to about 1.5" x 1/4" to prevent robbing and never noticed any, the honey just doesn't seem to be in the hive.  Could they be using it all up?  What would they have done if I hadn't added any?  Probably only half a frame left.  Still bringing in pollen, but if not enough honey would they just raise less brood?  If I fed sugar water or added more frames, would they raise even more brood?

[GSF]

Is this hive queen right?

[Duane]

In this one I did see eggs and larva.  The parent hive has honey throughout but no eggs or larva.

Does queen right or not relate to using up honey?  Because these two hives are almost the exact opposites here.

[GSF]

I was just thinking that if it wasn't queen right then it may have got weak and then got robbed out. Just guessing.

[Duane]

No, I don't think they got robbed out.  I had reduced the entrance and see bees guarding it often.  And there is some of the honey left.