Making Summer Nucs
GCBA May 2014
Dan O’Callaghan
(ocallaghan@irishhillfarm.net)
Definitions
(for remainder of this presentation)
• Split – Making a new colony from an
existing – making a nuc is a type of
split.
• Nuc – A Nucleus Hive, a 3-5 frame
colony
Why Nucs?
• Save $$ replacing losses
•Increase production (more hives)
•Decrease production (less hives/fewer bees)
•Prevent swarming
•Produce bees for sale
•Re-queen or raise queens
•Deal with ‘hot’ hive
•Mite control
•???
Using Nucs
• Many recommend maintaining several nucs
– 1 nuc per 2 hives common, 1 – 1 gaining popularity
• Some uses (other than selling bees)
– Keep ready queen replacement on-hand
– Augment hives during flow
– Queen rearing
– Summer increase for overwintering
• Create nucs in summer, overwinter for rapid expansion in
spring
• Details in Larry Connor’s “Increase Essentials” and/or
kirkwebster.com
Nucs
What is a Nuc?
• A nuc is a mini-hive
containing a small
colony of bees,
typically 3-5 frames.
• May be in own box
or in divided
standard box
This is a picture of Joe Latshaw
with some of his nuc’s. Joe
specializes in raising queens.
(pic “borrowed” from Dana Stahlman presentation)
Nuc Boxes
Commonly used options to house nucs
• Buy/Make nuc boxes sized to hold 3-5 frames
–
–
–
–
Solid bottom
Removable bottom ‘mini-hive’
Deep – Medium – Shallow
Polystyrene (Styrofoam)
• Divider board(s) w special bottom boards to split
full size ‘standard’ box into separate chambers.
• Mini mating nucs/frames for queen rearing
Some Nuc Box Examples
Finding the queen?
• Very important to find the queen/know where
she is when splitting or making nucs
• Methods:
• Visually find old queen while splitting (very time
consuming, not always possible or effective)
• Use queen excluder(s) to confine queen to 1 box 4-5
days prior to split (requires 2 visits)
• Split without finding, check 4-5 days after split, look
for eggs, re-queen box with none (not efficient for
production hive, queenless period, requires 2-3 visits)
Making Nucs
• Typical Nuc creation
1. May use single or multiple ‘donor’ hives
2. In each nuc chamber, add:
•
•
•
•
1 - 3 frames of brood/bees
Shake bees from 2-3 other brood frames
1 – 2 frames stores (honey & pollen)
Frames of foundation/comb to fill
3. Queen
• May re-queen as in standard split
• May move old queen from donor hive
• May let them raise own queen
Making Nucs
• How many frames of brood/bees?
– Deep frame has about 6,400 cells
• @75% emergence, about 4,800 bees/frame
– About 1/2lb (1600) nurse bees needed to cover
each frame of brood
– Laying queen about 1,000-1,200 eggs/day
How many frames of brood/bees?
Chart from “Increase Essentials, Larry Connor
(slide)
Early Season Nucs
• 4-way (Mississippi) splits:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Requires 1 strong double-chamber hive
All resources – bees, brood, stores – are divided equally into 4
separate units.
May be in divided chambers, most often centered in singledeeps with remaining space filled with frames
foundation/comb
Usually all 4 are re-queened
Usually require feeding as flow has not started and goal is to
get them into production ASAP
• Used by commercial pollinators for rapid early season
build-up/increase
• Good method for dealing with large ‘hot’ hive
• MUST have queens as no drones available for mating
Mid-Season Nucs
• Usually used for swarm control. Goal is to keep production
hive intact but stop swarming.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Strong, crowded production hive, with or without queen cells
Amount of bees/brood/stores varies. If more than 2 frames of
each need to be removed, consider multiple nucs
If queen cells available, cells go into nucs, queen stays with
original colony
If no queen cells, must add at least 1 frame of eggs and open
brood if letting bees raise their own queen
Feeding is not usually required as the flow is in progress
• Letting bees raise their own queen is usually viable as
drones are available during swarm season.
• Also a good method for preserving an ‘old’ queen rather
than ‘squish’ during spring-requeening
Late-Season Nucs
• Used mainly for overwintering – getting “off the bee
package treadmill”
1. Select from good production hives
2. Use the minimum amount of bees and re-queen method
necessary to make a healthy population in the time
between make-up and winter.
3. Queen method varies – raise own, cells, locally raised
4. Feeding is variable. If flow is steady, not needed, if
dearth, is required.
• Letting bees raise their own depends on
time/flow/drone availability.
• Overall goal is population strong enough to survive
winter without exceeding nuc box capacity
Late-Season Nucs
• Select from good production
hives. Some traits:
– Queen productivity
– Colony Productivity
– Colony Temperment
– Hygenic behavior
– Survivor/Resistant stock
– ???
(photos plagiarized from
Dana Stahlman)
Late-Season Nucs
• Use the minimum amount of bees and requeen method necessary to make a healthy
population in the time between make-up and
winter (chart). Some variables:
• Time of year/temperature
• Flow or dearth status
• Queen method on population growth start
• Laying queen ~week
• Virgin queen/cells ~3weeks
• Raise own queen ~5-6 weeks
Late-Season Nucs
• Feeding necessity requires monitoring and
may change throughout the season.
• Early summer, may not need during flow
• Mid-summer, probable dearth, must feed
• Early fall, depends on flow
• If more than 1 or 2 frames are foundation,
best bet is to feed regardless of flow
Overwintering Nucs
• Suggested timeline:
• Mid-June, make nuc with one
frame of brood & queen cell
• Late June/early July, monitor for
feeding requirements
• Late July, begin feeding
• Late Fall/early winter, when temp
consistently below 50, crowd nucs
together (optional)
• Winter – emergency feed if
needed
• Early spring – move survivors into
full-size boxes as needed.
Photos courtesy of
Dr. Joe Latshaw
References
• www.honeybeeworld.com/spring/splits.htm
• “Increase Essentials”
by Larry Connor.
• Dana Stahlman OSBA
presentations:
“Summer Management”
“Management of Nucs”
• Dr. Joe Latshaw
latshawapiaries.com/uploads/wintering-nucs.pdf