Video of Feral Survivor Nucleus

[Joseph Clemens]

Here is a link to a short video of one of my feral survivor nucleus colonies --- I used this nuc to save a queen from one of my original colonies which I requeened Cordovan Italian to see how they do in my area:

(It is a 7 mb AVI, video file, so if you don't have broadband, expect to wait a while).

http://www.wjclemens.com/cordovan-honeybee/images/videos/Feral_Survivor_Nuc.AVI

[Apis629]

Cool video, so, how is the Cardovan queen doing?

[Joseph Clemens]

The hive this queen came from now has a Cordovan Italian queen.

I first created this queenless nuc, introduced the Cordovan Italian queen to the nuc and she was accepted.

I then removed the original queen from the hive and put her in a queen cage inside the nuc with the Cordovan Italian queen.

Late the next afternoon I moved the captive queen to the nuc she now occupies and placed the initial nuc contents including the now accepted Cordovan Italian queen into an empty super separated by a sheet of newspaper above the original hive. I checked them the next morning and discovered the newpaper had been eliminated and the bees and new queen were merged with the original colony.

By this time virtually the entire original population has been replaced by her progeny. So far they are as healthy and vigorous as any of my other colonies. I enjoy their calmer behavior (they don't run on the combs) and bright golden color.

[newbee101]

Great video Joseph! It looks like a stong hive. Did you put the bees from this nuc into a deep hive body yet?

[Joseph Clemens]

Not yet, presently they are just there to provide an emergency replacement queen if a colony should need one.