Nuc From 2hives??

[Jahjude]

I'd like to try and form a new nuc hive from 2 separate 10 deep frame hives for expansion/swarm prevention purposes:

Hive #1 80-90% filled with bees new emergency queen started laying over a 1week ago(lots of eggs in frames not alot of capped/uncapped brood) and there are 4swarm cells capped abt a day or 2 ago.....

Hive#2 is also 80-90% filled and has brood at all stages with few frames of honey/beebread.

Now what i' like to do is create a nuc with frames from both these hives(dont wanna take too much from one hive) and the queen from hive#1 to prevent swarming??

Seeking suggestions as i'm undertaking my first split :-\

[Kathyp]

don't know about taking the queen unless you cage her for a few days.  i think if you tried to just put her in, the bees from other hives would kill her.

you can make a nuc with frames from more than one hive.  when i have done it, i take frames with nurse bees only and then feed them for a few days until i see they are foraging.  either syrup, or frames of honey.

[Jahjude]

Ok kool,actually i had in mind to takes bees along with frames from both hives and smoke them to prevent fighting,give them abt 2-3hrs without a queen and then check and install caged queen...

Reason i wanna take queen from hive #1 is bcuz i've read that if bees have decided to swarm then removing swarm cells wont deter them from swarming so it'd be best to do a split by removing older queen and opening up brood area in original hive

[RayMarler]

I think it sounds plausible, worth a try at least.  If you have a 5 frame nuc, just take 2 frames from each hive, one with brood and one with nectar from each, make sure you have the one queen like you said, and make up a nuc.  Add in one frame of foundation and Shake in a frame of bees from the strongest hive if needed for good population. Hopefully it will deter the one from swarming and give you a nuc with queen to build up into a hive.

[Jahjude]

Yeah Ray,dat's da goal i'm hoping to score  8-) Kool

[RayMarler]

Right on, hey, post the results, or the observations of your inspections as you do them.  Will be great for us to follow along with your manipulations and results.  Thanks!

[Jahjude]

Right on, hey, post the results, or the observations of your inspections as you do them.  Will be great for us to follow along with your manipulations and results.  Thanks!

;) Will do, I've been learning alot from others who have been doing same.....
Planning to do my next inspection in a day or two

[Jahjude]

May 06 : Had to make adjustments to plan,checked Hive#2 and found a few capped swarm cells(must've overlooked them b4).Hive was also Queenless and eggless indicating they swarmed atleast 4days ago,so had to close up and allow them to do there thing.

Made a split of hive #1,placed queen in "5frame nuc" with 4frames from original hive.Moved original hive with 4capped swarm cells approx 10ft away to allow foragers to return to nuc.

Checked on splits yesterday,Nuc is doing ok but i'm kinda confused with wat i saw in hive #1(original used to make split).
There were 4  swarm cells as i mentioned b4,3 on one frame an 1 on another.....all 3 were opened on one frame and the other still remains intact,also could not find a queen in the hive-Thinking she may have swrmed,be out on mating flight or queen battle was a tight duel that resulted in death of both.
Wat i was expecting to see is one neatly opened queen cell and all others with sides ripped out but this was a shocker.
Wat do u think is happening???

here's a view of 3 capped cells on a frame


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[RayMarler]

Give it another week and see what's inside then. Sometimes just giving some time will bring answers for the situation.

[Bee Happy]

I took bees and brood from 2 different hives (I had planned to leave the queen in the old hive though) but to combine them, I made a light sugar water - (couldn't call it a syrup, really) and put about half a teaspoon of vanilla in for four cups of the sugar water to fool their noses. - I got two frames of honey, and two frames of brood, and gave them one empty frame for something to work on.    The queen in the nuc turned out to be a fail, but they didn't fight on being put together. ( I think the queen problem is worked out now too)