Stacking Nucs

[Beeboy01]

Has anybody tried adding a 5 frame nuc super on top of a regular nuc, I think they are called nuc castles and the idea is that the bees will move up into the top box easier when drawing out comb than they would in a regular 10 frame deep. I'm giving it a try with a swarm I just caught and would like to know what problems to look out for.
Ed

[tefer2]

Has worked great for me, just watch them cause they fill up fast.

[Robo]

Do it all the time,  sometimes get to 3 or 4 high if time is short.   As tefer says, keep an eye on them or they will swarm real quick.

[msully]

I've overwintered double high nuc's, actually I prefer them to be doubles for overwintering. 

Recently, I added a second box of drawn/undrawn comb, didn't move a frame up or anything.  A week later they had the 2nd box crammed with brood and I had to move them into a full 2 deep hive box.  I wasn't brave enough to go 3 nucs high...

Mike

[Beeboy01]

Thanks, I caught the swarm in a 5 frame nuc and just figured it was easier to drop a second nuc box on top. The swarm is cranked up, it made a section of comb the size of my hand within the first 24 hours of moving into the trap. I am feeding it and have already put a second 5 frame box on it with foundation and plan on checking it tomorrow. This is my first year experimenting with nucs so any tips will be helpful.

[Beeboy01]

Now I'm getting a bit upset, the swarm has absconded even though I put a frame of brood in the box when i brought it home. This makes the third swarm that I've caught and then had leave this year, do I have bad breath or something?? I'm going back to using deeps instead of nucs to set swarms up in the yard with, that way I can use an excluder above the bottom board to keep queenie in the hive. Any idea of what I'm doing wrong or is it just part of bee keeping?  :-x :-x

[AllenF]

Sounds like you are going to the school of hard knocks of beekeeping.   Give them a good home and if they like it, they will stay.   Trap the queen in the box and they will have to stay.  Excluder on bottom works if you are sure you got the queen in there.   Frame cage and queen catchers work well also if you can find the queen.   Just keep trying.   

[AndrewT]

I usually put swarms in a deep with lots of space and just leave them alone for awhile.  It's possible that getting into them too much too soon might cause them to leave. 

I use five frame nucs every year when I do splits, and I usually stack them two-high before I put them in a deep, unless it's later in the year and temp isn't an issue, then I stick them in a deep as soon as they fill the five-frame nuc.

[Beeboy01]

I don't know about the school of hard knocks, how about the school of hard nucs ;). Splits aren't an option right now, I'm in the middle of the Saw Palmetto bloom and don't want to loose the honey crop. Looks like I'll wait for another swarm to come my way, the season is still young.

[BlueBee]

Sorry for the bad luck BeeBoy.  I start my splits and swarms in nucs as others have said.  Here is a photo of the nuc I've got my April 19th swarm in.  It is going strong.  The girls are bringing in pollen so I think they're staying.



This is 5 mediums over 5 deeps.  I put 1 medium frame with brood in the top box and 1 medium frame with honey + water in the top box for food.  The bottom deep box was 5 frames of blank plastic frames.  Top entrance, bottom screen, 2" foam in this design.

[Beeboy01]

Well the saga continues, after having the swarm abscond I tracked down two queens from a club member who didn't need them planning to set up two nucs. i pulled two frames of brood per nuc from two of my bigger hives along with some honey frames and set them up yesterday afternoon in 5 frame boxes, one queen was released, the other I kept in the queen cage. I checked both nucs this afternoon and the nuc that the queen released was doing fine but the other nuc had been wiped out last night by the big red carpenter ants. There must of been an epic battle in the nuc because the bottom was about a 1/2 inch deep in dead bees and ants. It was a real suprise seeing all the death in the bottom of a nuc that was doing fine under 24 hours ago. All the capped brood looked ok but there were only about 20 bees left in the hive along with the queen which was still in her cage. I shook out the remains of the nuc and spent some time stomping ants then was able to move the queen who was still alive and in her cage to a hive that looks like it lost it's queen. The new hive has lots of pollen and honey in the brood area with no capped or young brood. I combined the remaining frames of brood from the lost nuc into the other nuc and turned it into a two high 5 frame nuc. I don't know if it will work but I couldn't think of anything else to do to save the queen and brood. I also spread a goodly amount of ant bait around the edges of the bee yard. Now along with the ants I'm dealing with some aggressive robber bees coming in from somewhere near by. Can't say I'm getting bored this year, even have two or three shallows of honey on each hive so far and it will be time for an extraction before I know it.     

[BlueBee]

Sure don't miss those Florida ants and bugs!  One good thing about having a few months of bone chilling cold; it kills off a lot of bugs.

Sorry for your problems beeboy.  I would say your double decker nuc should do find as long as you just have the one queen in there.  It's a bummer your swarm absconded.   I've caught 5 swarms in the past 2 weeks and so far (knock on wood) they're all staying put.   

[BjornBee]

One of our nuc building yards...

[tefer2]

Just a few thoughts on your swarms that are bugging out, always make sure you give them a frame with open brood on it (not capped). Maybe there are to many bees for just one nuc box. Could try two stacked to start out with if you see they are cramped. I'm no help with Florida red ants though.

[Beeboy01]

One of the members's of the local bee keepers club told me that africanized swarms will bug out of a hive so I can't be too upset. I don't want any AHB mixed in my yard and it could of been that the swarm had some AHB in it.
Very nice nuc yard you have got there BjornBee. 

[VolunteerK9]

One of our nuc building yards...

Nice looking nucs