Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: My first nuke  (Read 10828 times)

Offline ShaneJ

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 530
  • Gender: Male
My first nuke
« on: August 30, 2012, 12:59:49 am »
This is not much but I'm happy with it :)

The nuke on far right I started 14/08/2012 with 2 frames of capped brood, some eggs and a queen cell. The queen is now mated and laying well. This nuke was originally taken to a different site so the bees didn't return to the original hive.

The 2 nukes on left I started 26/08/2012 with 2 frames of capped brood, some eggs and a queen cell. These nukes were kept in the same yard as the mother hive. Some of the bees must have returned to the original hive on the second day as they didn't have as many bees as they did when I started them.

Shane

Offline west end apiary

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 33
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2012, 01:08:25 pm »
looks good, are they four frame nucs? why did you only use two frames of capped brood, what are the other two frames, honey and pollen?
Hope to do some nucs of my own in the near future.
Congrats, Nick

Offline ShaneJ

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 530
  • Gender: Male
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2012, 08:07:46 pm »
The nuke with the laying queen is now 5 frames, 2 were the brood/eggs and 3 foundation.
The other 2 nukes are 2 brood/eggs and 2 foundation.

I only used to frames of brood because they had a queen cell so it shouldn't take them long to build up. Unlike just adding some eggs and having the bees produce a queen from scratch.
Shane

Offline ShaneJ

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 530
  • Gender: Male
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2012, 06:15:00 am »
Well it looks like my second nukes are not doing to well. The queens have hatched but there are not many bees left in the nukes. I assume they have returned to the mother hive.
Could I shake some more nurse bees into the nukes from my other hives? Or would this be bad? Should I just add a frame of capped brood?

Thank you
Shane

Offline Larry Bees

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 711
  • Gender: Male
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2012, 06:39:51 am »
I add a frame of capped brood when a nuc has only a few bees. I don't know if that's the correct answer, but that's what I do.

Larry

Online Michael Bush

  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 19807
  • Gender: Male
    • bushfarms.com
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2012, 02:58:35 pm »
Nuc is short for nucleus.  Nuke is short for nuclear...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

Offline ShaneJ

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 530
  • Gender: Male
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2012, 07:57:41 pm »
Nuc is short for nucleus.  Nuke is short for nuclear...

I've never been good with spelling :-X
Shane

Offline Sparky

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 804
  • Gender: Male
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2012, 10:15:31 pm »
If you have the resources to spare you could add a frame of capped brood and its onboard bees to each nuc. It would also get them into production mode more if you had any flow going on or a feeder as a kick start.

Offline Larry Bees

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 711
  • Gender: Male
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2012, 12:19:35 am »
I add a frame of capped brood when a nuc has only a few bees. I don't know if that's the correct answer, but that's what I do.

Larry

I just did this again yesterday. Big red carpenter ants attacked one of my weaker nucs and killed half of the bees. After killing the ants, I took a frame of capped brood from a strong hive and put it in the nuc,

Larry

Offline ShaneJ

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 530
  • Gender: Male
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2012, 12:31:12 am »
I took a frame of capped bees and some nurse bees and added to one of the weaker hives. I only did it to one as I wasn't sure if the bees would fight  :?
Shane

Offline Lazy W

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 76
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2012, 11:43:11 am »
Very Nice. Thanks for sharing.

Offline yelnifok

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • Gender: Male
Re: My first nuke
« Reply #11 on: September 13, 2012, 02:43:04 am »
Generally Shane if you lightly shake a brood frame over the nuc that you want to put the brood frame- the nurse/house bees will go right down into the nuc without upsetting the other nuc residents. Any foraging bees on the frame fly back to there original colony. You can do the same thing by 'brushing' the bees off but that seems to upset them more.IMO
   lee...