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Author Topic: I'm making an emergency nuc to save a Queen four weeks out from spring  (Read 1115 times)

Offline OzBuzz

  • Queen Bee
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  • Posts: 1031
Hey guys, long and short of it-have a small hive in a log-very few bees. The queen is a fighter and I want to save her genetics. I need to make an emergency nuc with some frames of brood and bees from my existing hive. I'm getting a five frame nuc tomorrow. I was going to take two frames of bees and brood from an existing 8 frame hive I have and put them in position 2 & 3 or 3 & 4 in the nuc. Then I was going to cage the queen with some candy and let them eat her out. a few questions. Though:

- what should I look for when selecting which brood frames to take?
- is caging the queen the best way to introduce her?

I was going to use 3x plastic frames I have that are already drawn and incorporate that with two timber frames from my hive - are they compatible?

Anything else i should know/do?

Thanks for your help
« Last Edit: August 05, 2010, 09:06:58 pm by OzBuzz »

Offline AliciaH

  • Field Bee
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  • Gender: Female
Re: I'm making an emergency nuc to save a Queen four weeks out from spring
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2010, 12:55:36 pm »
I can't answer to the best way to introduce the queen, sorry.  As for the brood, the queen you're saving is already laying, right? 

I like the idea of frames with more larvae and capped brood than eggs.  I've had bees decide they don't really like the new queen and start emergency supersedure cells from the eggs they already have.  Not sure it it's because of the abrupt change in pheramones or if there was something wrong with the queen I'd ordered, but it's something to keep an eye out for if you really like the queen your saving.

Good luck!


 

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