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A Tale of Two Nucs

  • 29 May 2021 5:02 PM
    Reply # 10573291 on 10565598
    Anonymous

    Thanks Ken, 

    if they rebuild the bridge comb in the brood box I’ll leave it next time. Since the poorer performing hive has some supercedure cells in place I think I’ll follow your advice, the bees know better what they need. Have a great weekend!

  • 28 May 2021 7:40 AM
    Reply # 10569038 on 10565598
    Anonymous

    Carter, I have a similar circumstance with two of my new colonies. My bee yard is up in the hills at 1150’ elevation and the nectar flow has barely begun. So, I have been feeding longer than expected this year. I will put a second deep on the weaker colony next week, IF they have built out enough.

    I admit that the bees know a lot more about what they need than I do. If they want burr comb across the brood frames there must be a reason. Ventilation maybe. I won’t be harvesting from those frames so I just leave them to the bees to manage. That includes letting them decide whether or not they produce a new queen.

    My job at the moment is feeding and pest control, which is complicated enough for me to bollox up at any time. Best of luck to both of us

  • 27 May 2021 4:23 PM
    Message # 10565598
    Anonymous

    These are my first hives, installed 4/18 into 10 frames Langtroths.  As Nucs, both were 5 frames that looked full of bees and resources. Fast forward a couple of weeks and it's obvious that one hive is out pacing the other. Even the landing board activity is much greater on the thriving hive.  But  there's activity (capped brood) in both and since even the pokey hive has about 60% of the first box built out, I added a second brood box to both about 2 weeks ago. Inspected yesterday and the thriving hive is busting at the seams.  The weaker hive is till poking along in the lower box, with very little activity in the second broad box.  Also, 3 supersedure cups have been formed on one of the frames. Found the Queen and successfully marked her with-out any obvious damage.  So if she's a poor performer, should I replace her now or wait for a new queen to hatch out and take over?  Also, since the thriving hive is going gang-busters, should I supplement a frame of bees from that hive into the weaker one until a new queen is established?  Appreciate any thoughts you more experienced guys have on how to handle theses gals. The other problem is that the thriving hive is going nuts with bridge comb and building comb off the surface of the the foundation, sort of between frames. I cleaned up the bridge comb, which gave me a good chance to check larvae for mites.  But not sure how to clean up the off foundation combs. Any suggestions?

    Thanks,

    Carter 

     

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