2012-07-08: Nuc the Entire Site from Orbit

That morning I had swung by Mike Palmer to purchase two of his queens to allow me to build a 'double nuc'. A nuc being a small hive. The double nuc design is more or less a regular deep with a divider down the middle and an entrance in the back for one of the chambers instead of the front of the hive. By housing two colonies together like a duplex, the hope is that they will winter better (since they are warmed on one side by the other colony) and they can be used in the Spring to replace winter losses. One queen came from an old hive of his that has been a stellar honey producer over the years and to which he has not had to do much in the way of medication. While that hive no doubt has superseded several times over the years, the genes inside should behoove well for any queens from it. The other queen was a decedent of a queen that Mike had gotten from a no treatment apiary. An infusion of anti-mite genes is a good thing. I liked the fact that they were two unrelated queens which further increases the genetic variety of my own apiary since these queens will produce drones that will have a chance to breed with any virgin queen (in the aftermath of a swarm or as part of the process of a supersedure or a split) in my apiary.

After getting them back to my apiary I had to assemble the double nuc. I had the woodenware ready. One side I had painted a dark green and the other I had left a lemon yellow (I had bought the woodenware used from a beekeeper that was downsizing). For each new colony I would need to supply a frame of brood, a frame of honey, a frame of some brood and honey or pollen, and an empty frame (foundation would suffice). I decided to build the yellow half from Yellow using the queen from Mike's strong producer hive. I figured that Yellow was strong and could loose some brood... and also it would be easier to remember who I got them from. Last year I had done this process and had discovered that the hive I had planned to take frames from had superseded which caused some anxiety at the time. Things when much smoother this time.

 

 

I proceeded to build the green side from Blue, since Blue was the most populous hive though it might ding its honey production. I managed to bring over more nurse bees as well during this process than last year (especially the green side) and I hope that will help them build out stronger than the double nuc I made last year.

I probably should have used Red as the source of bees since its not taking off and it would be better to sacrifice a weak colony rather than sap the strength of strong colonies who could use that extra strength to make even more honey. But I wanted to give Red a little more time before culling it to see if it might take off.

I did decide to just remove the top box from Red, I needed a frame of foundation for each of the new nucs and they were not doing anything with it yet. This would give them the time to finish building out the bottom box.

I didn't have the time to work much with the other hives. But I did manage replace the scrap piece of plywood on the Swarm hive with a proper top cover.