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Author Topic: am I being resonable?  (Read 5311 times)

Offline giant pumpkin peep

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am I being resonable?
« on: August 24, 2009, 10:31:51 pm »
Ok... I only have one hive. My plan is to grow to 5 next year considering I can make a split if my current hive survives. Then I plan to make up 8 or so styrofoam nucs. there was a presentation on them at the bee club meeting. Take a frame of brood and either introduce a mated queen or put in a soo to hatch queen cell a few weeks earlier. I might be able to get deeps from a beek who was too many for cheap.  8-) 
Like the forum mod said. everything is relative. I wouldn't mind being to 20 hives in 2 years.
I like pumpkins!

Offline John Schwartz

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Re: am I being resonable?
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2009, 10:34:03 pm »
Yes, all possible -- I would count on some losses, especially being new at it. :)
―John Schwartz, theBee.Farm

Offline Robo

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Re: am I being resonable?
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2009, 10:53:03 pm »
If your planning on making your 1 hive into 5 in one year by splitting it, I believe you are being a little optimistic. 
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline giant pumpkin peep

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Re: am I being resonable?
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2009, 11:17:10 pm »
Quote
1 hive into 5 in one year

That isn't my plan. I was thinking of starting 3 new packages next year. If ( a bif "if") my hive survives I will make a split of it. then I would have my origanal hive, the split and 3 packages. Of course there will be losses.
I like pumpkins!

Offline Robo

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Re: am I being resonable?
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2009, 08:22:53 am »
That sounds like a very reasonable plan then.   If your current hive survives the winter I would highly suggest waiting until after the honey flow to do the split.  That way you can get some honey and still get your split.   A lot of folks do splits as soon as the hive builds up and ruin their chances of a honey crop.    I use polystyrene nucs to over winter and really like them.   They really retain the heat,  and the bees build up much better.   good luck...
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline David LaFerney

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Re: am I being resonable?
« Reply #5 on: August 25, 2009, 09:30:49 am »
That sounds like a very reasonable plan then.   If your current hive survives the winter I would highly suggest waiting until after the honey flow to do the split.  That way you can get some honey and still get your split.   a lot of folks do splits as soon as the hive builds up and ruin their chances of a honey crop.    I use polystyrene nucs to over winter and really like them.   They really retain the heat,  and the bees build up much better.   good luck...

I'm starting to think that keeping lots of nucs is a good strategy for a sustainable bee yard. I would be interested in hearing input from you and others who actually do it as to why you keep lots of nucs. 

Do you keep nucs mostly for backup against loss, a basis for comparison of different queens, source of brood and other resources, general increase - or other strategies?   

I know that you rear queens, so I assume that you populate your nucs with the best offspring of your best queens.   
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Samuel Clemens

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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: am I being resonable?
« Reply #6 on: August 26, 2009, 08:01:32 pm »
It's best to let the bees decide.  A stronger split will build up faster.  So actually making an even split several times often has better results than several small splits earlier.

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