Nuc'ing It Out

Now I have two nucs to compare. One Meghan made for me out of a bursting hive of hers that survived the winter. The other my carpool mate, Ben, gave me. His hive was getting ready to swarm, so we created an artificial swarm - ie, a nuc - during last class. Ben has a five-month old baby and doesn't have time to maintain a nuc at a separate property. He generously gave me his. In exchange, I promised to give him bees in the spring if he has a deadout.

If I had to predict, I would guess that Meghan's nuc will be the healthier. The queen in Ben's nuc will most likely be a full-blooded Georgian (unless his Georgia queen mated with a local drone). I don't know how well the Georgians will do in our Michigan winters. I know that Meghan's hive is a survivor. 

Anyone care to bet?

Here's how we made the nuc from Ben's overfull hive:

Step One

Our teacher, Winn Harliss, offered an empty nuc box. He says he is the most prepared beekeeper you'll ever meet, and I believe him. The three queen cells in the hive tipped Winn off that the girls might be getting ready to swarm. Creating a nuc is like creating an artificial swarm, except the beekeeper gets to keep the bees.

Step Two

Winn made room in the nuc box by removing a couple of empty frames.

Step Three

Winn removed a frame of honey, pollen and bees from the overfull hive and placed it in an empty spaces in the nuc box.

Step Four

Then he removed a frame of brood, which had three queen cells on it, and put it in the nuc box.

You can see one of the queen cells here. It looks like a little cone in the upper left corner.

-Whispered Aside-

Winn said the bees built a second layer of comb instead of drawing out this foundation because the foundation is plastic instead of wax. Some people swear by the plastic, but not Winn. He says the bees don't like it.

Last But Not Least

Finally, Winn put the new frames into the busting hive to fill the gaps we'd created by removing the brood and honey frames.