Latest date for nuc

[Beeman]

great season so far but hoping to use up a queen reared at home, i am located in n ireland ,what would be latest date to make up a 3 frame nuc (2 brood and 1 food) that will build up enough by autumn?

[madasafish]

You need to ensure you have drones to mate with the virgin.. Allowing 16 days for a queen to emerge and (say) 21 days for mating = 37 days, brings you to mid September - if you started TODAY.

Pushing it if much later in my view but you know your local climate best..

[Jon]

Sounds like he has a queen already and wants to make a nuc with it if I read the post correctly. Still time but I would be looking to make a nuc with 3 or 4 frames rather than two now we are into August.
A smallish nuc will need a well insulated box.

[fatshark]

Did one just like this today in one of the new Everynuc's from Thorne's which are pretty well insulated, sides and top … I split the nuc off a so-so (strength wise) colony, uniting the remainder with a weaker one containing a better queen. Nucs made up like this need a bit of TLC to make sure they build up enough to overwinter, but don't outgrow the box.

[rogerb]

Hi Beeman,

You’ll be fine now.
Close the entrance down to one bee space (or it will be robbed) and give 1:1 syrup ad lib till the end of September, and give them as many frames of drawn comb or foundation so they can store what they will.
You can most likely get away with no veroa treatment as this may knock them back a bit.
I did exactly this last season at this time of year and the resulting colony has far out performed all my other hives (I didn’t close down the entrance, and it was robbed, very badly!).

Cheers RogerB

[Jon]

I would be reluctant to feed syrup at the moment. The wasp population is enormous and the bees are in robbing mode as well. Syrup in a weak colony sends them crazy attacking it and even with a small entrance they could be overcome. Best would be to set in a frame or two of stores if you have some as the nuc is less likely to be robbed out.

[Beeman]

Thanks for everyone's advice-it is a mated queen I am using - I will add 2 frames of about to emerge brood and 2-3 of food/pollen - if it doesn't get strong enough I can always re unite-it's more that I have an unused new queen and don't want to see it go to waste

[prakel]

Uniting small but healthy colonies is one of the biggest wastes we see in beekeeping. It's amazing how relatively small units will go through winter if they're in an appropriate sized and/or insulated box. You may lose the small one trying, but if you unite two you'll definitely lose one.

[alancooper]

I would be reluctant to feed syrup at the moment. The wasp population is enormous and the bees are in robbing mode as well. Syrup in a weak colony sends them crazy attacking it and even with a small entrance they could be overcome. Best would be to set in a frame or two of stores if you have some as the nuc is less likely to be robbed out.

Wasps are pestering my hives/nucs (much reduced entrances). For the last two weeks I have had a couple of clear plastic bottles, with a side-small hole near the top, half-filled with a water/soft fruit mix. They are trapping many wasps. Is this useful-or am I simply attracting wasps?

[Little_John]

Wasps are pestering my hives/nucs (much reduced entrances). For the last two weeks I have had a couple of clear plastic bottles, with a side-small hole near the top, half-filled with a water/soft fruit mix. They are trapping many wasps. Is this useful-or am I simply attracting wasps?

If they're very close to the hives, then you're advertising the presence of those hives ...

Wasp traps really need to be a reasonable distance away - say a minimum of 50 feet - and downwind of the hives, so that you attract wasp scouts who will be following the scent plume up from that direction. Move the traps as and when the wind shifts.

A handful of wasp scouts in your traps is far more valuable than a thousand of their regular soldiers.

LJ

[Jon]

I agree with LJ. Don't have the traps too close to the hives as it only brings in more wasps.

[Little_John]

I would be reluctant to feed syrup at the moment. The wasp population is enormous and the bees are in robbing mode as well. Syrup in a weak colony sends them crazy attacking it and even with a small entrance they could be overcome. Best would be to set in a frame or two of stores if you have some as the nuc is less likely to be robbed out.

Does anybody have any knowledge as to the actual 'mechanism' which precedes robbing ? I find it strange that feeding sugar syrup during a dearth should do this - I can understand how exposed honey (with it's aroma) would do this - but why plain syrup ?

I have a small amount of robbing going on at present, which is being held at bay by mesh screens, but it's put all beekeeping activity on hold pro tempus, as I don't want to open-up any hives during the day.

Curiously, the FatBeeMan advises opening ALL hives during robbing, as he says it causes the robbers to return home to protect their own stores. Well - that would take a leap of faith, which I don't really have right now. It also assumes that any robbing is intra-apiary, whereas I suspect my robbers are coming here from across the fields, where a certain beek stupidly leaves his spun supers outside for the bees to clean. I'll know for sure tomorrow morning, as I'll be closing-up all my hives overnight in an attempt to check the source (not that it makes any difference ...).

LJ

[alancooper]

Seems like good advice - thanks. I also notice that wasps are feeding on debris (sweet solids? - crystallised stores?) falling onto the ground through hive mesh floors - which complicates the problem. Can't think what to do about it.

[Little_John]

Curiously, the FatBeeMan advises opening ALL hives during robbing, as he says it causes the robbers to return home to protect their own stores. Well - that would take a leap of faith, which I don't really have right now. It also assumes that any robbing is intra-apiary, whereas I suspect my robbers are coming here from across the fields, where a certain beek stupidly leaves his spun supers outside for the bees to clean. I'll know for sure tomorrow morning, as I'll be closing-up all my hives overnight in an attempt to check the source (not that it makes any difference ...).

So I closed all the hives at around midnight, and found these 'visitors' at a few minutes after 8 this morning. What you can't see are a hundred or more hovering in the air with their legs dangling behind them - these are just the ones which have landed. They're ginger bees - and I don't have ginger bees. So at least I know that the problem originates from outside the apiary. So no point opening-up hives - that would make the situation worse.

http://i62.tinypic.com/zixauf.jpg



http://i58.tinypic.com/35ioakz.jpg

LJ

[Little_John]

Seems like good advice - thanks. I also notice that wasps are feeding on debris (sweet solids? - crystallised stores?) falling onto the ground through hive mesh floors - which complicates the problem. Can't think what to do about it.

I find the simplest way is not to allow debris to fall through the OMF onto the ground (my problem is ants ...), but to have a solid floor beneath the OMF with a correx sheet on top which can be slid out for periodic cleaning. Between the OMF and the solid floor are spacer battens which create a cavity - the size of which should be appropriate to the size of OMF to ensure adequate ventilation. My cavities are open only to the rear, and there's a solid board to close the cavity - for when there's high winds or extreme cold, or for when introducing new bees which can otherwise 'get stuck' under the OMF. It would be easy enough to fit a mesh guard instead of the solid closure board.

Here's a pic of one - I've pulled the correx tray out a little to show the debris on top.

http://i61.tinypic.com/33uzsrq.jpg

LJ