how fast will 5 frames bees eat a frame of honey

[windfall]

I little less than a week ago I split off a queen along with 5 frames (1 mostly capped brood, one half capped/half open brood, one nearly all pollen,one mostly capped honey, and one half uncapped nectar and half empty drawn) I also shook another frame of bees into the box, and gave them a frame of foundationless that was maybe 1/4 drawn.

I really couldn't move this nuc more than 5 feet. So I put some branches in front of it.

I assume most to all of the field bees returned to the original hive (which I left with 2 capped Q-cells)

since then I have seen near zero activity at the entrance to the new hive. I popped the lid Weds and it looked pretty full of bees. Yesterday I noticed a half dozen white bees that got ejected from the hive...most likely from damaged cells around where I removed a few queen cells?

All of this seems normal to me from what I have read. What I am wondering is how fast the bees in this nuc will consume the stores I gave them. Will I need to feed them syrup before they are able to muster a new field force to feed themselves? There is plenty in bloom now.

[Finski]

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It is better that you look inside the hive to follow what is going there. If they are lack of food, you ad it.

When you made such a nuc that frames were mostly capped brood, the main hive will suffer lack of new bees after a while. They need home workers.

If I make a nuc, I put there one frame of emerging brood. Next week I may add another frame of emerging brood.  5 frame shoud be now occupied with bees and the queen get enough layinf space.

Main question is however that I do not disturb honey yield foraging.

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[FRAMEshift]

The capped brood has already been fed.  It's the open brood that will consume the most resources, but you don't have much open brood.  Your main flow is still to come, so you should be fine.  When you do a split and the foragers return to the original hive, it takes a little more than a week for them to shift house bees to forager status and begin to send out foragers again.  Your one frame of honey should be enough for the split you have.

[AllenF]

Just keep an eye on the food in the hive.  It don't take a second to pop the top and look in to see if they are hungry or not.   You will have new foragers soon taking care of that nuc.  If you have to feed, reduce the entrance of the hive.

[windfall]

Thanks for the input all,

This afternoon I saw a handful of bees come out of the nuc and orient themselves to it and scoot back in. That was encouraging, and would seem in keeping with the transition Frameshift outlined.
I will of course be opening the hive to check on them. To be honest it's all I can do to stay out of the hives and I try to limit myself to once a week, but I wanted to have some idea of how quick they might run through those stores and not disturb them more frequently then required.

Finski,
Honey yield is not yet my primary concern. I Just started this year with a couple overwintered 8 frame nucs. For this year and probably next, my focus is on growing what I have and hopefully increasing total hive count.
I caught one hive with a bunch of capped and uncapped Q-cells, and attempted to do a "false swarm" split. If I did it improperly or if there was a better way to do it...well, I am hear to learn so do let me know.
I left several frames of mixed capped and open brood in the original hive (which was only 14-16 deep frames before the split) but I did take most of the stores for the nuc on the assumption they(the nuc) would not have forage ability for awhile. I also assumed that the old hive would not have much new brood to feed untill the new queen emerged and mated. Likewise I assumed the new hive with the queen would need more bees ASAP to replace the field force while continuing to rear brood, so I gave them a good portion of the capped brood.

[Finski]

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You started this year and I started 48 years ago. It took me several years to get real honey yield 50 kg from the best hive. Difficult to teach that skill level guy. Too strong opinions and no basic   experience. 

Just now here clock is 5 in the morning. I go to move hives to canola fields. There one hive may get normally 60 kg honey in 2 week.

If you have a strong hive, it is easy to add hive number.  but take first the honey yield then split it in several hives.

[windfall]

As to experience, there is only one way to get it...put in your time, and that is what I have begun to do.
strong opinions? I try hard not to fall into the "know it all newbie" trap. I read a lot. I ask a lot of questions of folks who do have the benefit of experience. I try to put the pieces together as best I can and I am open to correction.
How can I get a strong hive if it swarms early on me? was there a better solution?

[cam]

Brood nest management will cut down on swarming considerably. Also selection for queens that are not swarmy.