Making Summer Nucs

1. Making Summer Nucs GCBA May 2014 Dan O’Callaghan (ocallaghan@irishhillfarm.net)

2. 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

3. 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 ???

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

7. Some Nuc Box Examples

8. 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)

9. Making Nucs • Typical Nuc creation • May use single or multiple ‘donor’ hives • 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 • Queen • May re-queen as in standard split • May move old queen from donor hive • May let them raise own queen

10. 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

11. How many frames of brood/bees? Chart from “Increase Essentials, Larry Connor (slide)

12. Early Season Nucs • 4-way (Mississippi) splits: • 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 single-deeps 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

13. Mid-Season Nucs • Usually used for swarm control. Goal is to keep production hive intact but stop swarming. • 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

14. Late-Season Nucs • Used mainly for overwintering – getting “off the bee package treadmill” • Select from good production hives • Use the minimum amount of bees and re-queen method necessary to make a healthy population in the time between make-up and winter. • Queen method varies – raise own, cells, locally raised • 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

15. 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)

16. Late-Season Nucs • Use the minimum amount of bees and re-queen 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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