Nuc Question

[Destruckdoz]

This may be a REALLY dumb question to ask(novice). Is it possible to make nucs just from frames of brood and let them raise there own queens? I am not worried about honey production at all.

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

Yes, but I'm also a novice. So you'll have to wait for someone more experienced than me to explain the process. :) I know you have to have young eggs.... but that's all I know.

Beth

[Jerrymac]

You were going to include bees on these frames of brood, right?

[Michael Bush]

It's generally called a walk away split.  Just take some frames of brood of various ages (capped and open and eggs) and some honey and pollen and set up the nuc.  If you want to do an even split then just put half the open brood in each of them and half of the capped brood in each of them.  Half of the pollen in each of them and half of the honey in each of them and let which ever half the queen DIDN'T end up in raise a new one.

The only issue with this is that SOMETIMES the resulting queens aren't as good as swarm queens or supercedure queens.

Jay Smith ("Queen Rearing Simplified" and "Better Queens") speculates that the reason that emergency queens (such as these) are sometimes inferior is because they bees can't tear down the cell wall and have to float a larvae out instead where with swarms and superceudre they can plan ahead and build a queen cup for the queen to lay in.  The soluition is just to find three or four just hatched larvae and tear down the side of the cell that is on the bottom so they can build it into a queen cell without the cocoons stopping them from   building it the right way.  One beekeeper I know, uses a 30-30 bullet to break the cocoons.  He just pushes it into the mouth of the cell and flares it.  Then the bees do the rest.

[bayareaartist]

How about taking a 1/4 inch dowel and rounding off the end then use this to open up the cell?

And your pushing it in with the egg in it already?

[Michael Bush]

>How about taking a 1/4 inch dowel and rounding off the end then use this to open up the cell?

That's too small.  5/16" might work.
>And your pushing it in with the egg in it already?

I haven't done it.  I'd just take a sharp knife and cut the bottom side of the wall of the cells that have a JUST HATCHED larvae.  But I believe he was using a .30-30 (which is .3 inches which is about 5/16") and it's blunt on the end so you can do it withouth hitting the bottom of the cell.

[Jay]

Only if you don't use the gun too! :lol:

[wingmaster]

:roll:     You can but if you’re in an ahb zone you can end up with some real nasty tempered bees. Ahb's are in CA. You don’t have to do anything to the comb to get the bees to make queen sells they will make queen sells any time they are queen less or want to swarm. just make sure you get plenty of nurse bees in each nuc. You can do this buy shaking a frame with uncaped brood all the older bees will fly off on the first shake then shake or brush the rest of them into the nuc put a lot of bees in each nuc. Make sure you have a frame of eggs and a frame of honey with some pollen stores in each nuc. Leave them for a day and check to see that there are plenty of bees in there the next day. all the older bees well leave and go back to the hive leaving only the nurse bees behind so it may seem like you have a lot of bees in a nuc when you first hive them only find them almost empty the next day. Another way to do it is to move the nucs to another yard that’s to far for the bees to go back to the hive.