Hello Ron, I wouldn’t think of rotating frames out with a nuc, the bees need to be in good numbers to build out comb so I would hold that project off till they are in a full brood box and then only rotate out old comb that is really old.
Good that you are feeding them, that will give them a boost.
Regards
Thanks. No I wasn’t going to attempt that any time soon. How often should I check if the syrup is all gone?
What size baggie, with how much in it? I would usually say a couple of days, but if it was small and they really needed it, it could be gone in a day. 
It’s got 350ml in it and is sandwich size. 18x18cm. With 3 slits in it. It’s between the top board and the roof, so I assume by taking the roof off I’m only exposing the 2 or 3 inch hole, that doesn’t count as opening the hive??
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I would take a look ASAP then. They may well have slurped all that already! 
I usually use 4 litre baggies for feeding, and I put about 1.5 to 2 litres of syrup in them (not bulgeingly full, just “plump”).
You put it above the inner cover (crown board) which is smart. Lifting off the roof will cause minimal heat loss if you don’t dally. 
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Awesome, thanks Dawn. I’ll get it in in the morning.
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I guess the answer is often, check every third day and you will get an idea, the bees will take what they need and can store, As the bee numbers increase you will know you have done the right thing and you can reduce the artificial feeding.
Unbleached white flour is a good substitute for pollen that the bees will vigorously take to the hive. We can overlook pollen easily if we need to feed the bees.
Cheers Ron
It’s a good idea for anyone purchasing a nuc to do an inspection on pickup. Look over the brood for signs of disease. Look at the numbers of bees as well as what stage & how much brood is in the combs, not to mention the status of the combs.
Your colony shouldn’t be weak, considering the number of frames they occupy. The best thing to do is place a hive mat over the frames & reduce the entrance. I like to place the colony on one side of the box with the small entrance on the other side, so as to reduce cold air blowing onto the bees.
I sell the odd nuc. I came close to offering a customer a full refund on return of his bees the other day.
He complained that 50 bees each day was dying. He also said that after 3 days there wasn’t much activity at the entrance. Also they hadn’t done much work on his frames of foundation yet.
thanks Jeff and Peter.
It’s warm today so had a quick peek at the bag of syrup. they hadn’t had much at all, which i think means they’re getting enough of the natural stuff.
Also looked down the vent hole of the crown board and there was a lot of activity down there. There also was good activity on the landing board this morning with 2 different colours of pollen coming in.
Going to do a proper inspection on saturday and clear the grate of the chalky mummies so i can see if it’s an ongoing thing (the numbers in the grate weren’t growing as of yesterday) It’s back to cold next week with temps back down in the teens celsius.
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Hey Ron, Leave the syrup there for the bees, they will use it if they need to.
Regard teens C as cool, it isn’t cold for bees, they will still forage in the teens but not till the temperature and sun bets on the hive for a little while.
Clean up the chalk brood on Saturday and all you can do is monitor the hive. Only do inspections when the temp is above 23c and then make it a quickie.
You have had some bitter weather from the SW that are an annual weather pattern in Sydney for a few weeks then it will quickly warm up.
Regards
And he expected what?, that bees don’t die, He expected all the frames drawn and full of honey? Another person who hasn’t done any research.
When I sell a hive I insist the buyer spends time at my apiary for at least 2 hours so he knows what he is getting and how to do a hive inspection, it gives him some confidence and I know he will be keen to care for the bees. Otherwise the deal is off.
I help with the first extraction and only a phone call away. So far I have had positive feed back. I guess at some time I will find someone that isn’t happy and I will certainly suggest he return the hive for a full refund
Cheers Jeff
If you can take some photos of your inspection, we can help you identify any chalkbrood still in the frames. Glad you took a quick peek, and I agree with your assessment, well done. 
He reckons that bees only live 5 weeks, anyway based on 50 dead each day & only living for 5 weeks, there’s only 1500 bees in his colony. I didn’t try to follow his maths. Anyway I told him there would be a lot more than 1500 bees in there. He was going to phone me this morning to find out when I’m going to my bees again, so he can learn. I’m pleased he didn’t ring. If he rings tomorrow morning, I wont be home. I realized when I got home this evening that I left a fat frame of honey out. I’ll go early & rescue it & do some more splitting.
If he wants to learn, can I send him up your way?
You can send him up to me, maybe a good option for you to free you up with all the action going on at the moment. You can give him my number and ask him to call after 5:30 any day. Seems he needs to be told not to believe everything he sees on YouTube.
Remember I have about 4 hours work for you, not at ‘mates rates’, when you have the time.
I have one hive that is really booming, I did a split on it about 4 weeks ago and seems I will have to do a split again very soon.
Tea Tree is flowering well now.
Cheers mate…
Thanks Dawn, will do.
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He’s probably sweet by now, he’ll be seeing some activity by now. I gave him a beautiful nuc with some frames of brood I found hard to part with. A beautiful young queen that laid up those frames.
I imagine you’ll be seeing lots of those frames yourself.
That Tea Tree might give you some Jellybush honey. It’s about the time of year approaching when a lot of jellybush came into a hive in Twin Waters.
@akthommo got some jellybush honey where he is probably a little bit later than now last year.
I’ll give that bloke your # if he rings back. cheers . plus I’ll keep in mind that work you need done.
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There’s now quite a few mummiess on the bottom of the hive. Tomorrow’s going to be warm and I’m doing my first inspection 1 week after installing the nuc. My question is:
Should I shake the bees off any frames that might be full so I can see what’s under them, or not disturb them that much?
There’s good pollen coming in and pretty decent external activity during the day.
Cheers
Ron
I would not shake a frame unless you have something particular to look at Ron. If it is cool then make the inspection smooth and quickly done. Clean out the mummies and tidy up the frames keeping an eye out for any potential issues.
Cheers
thanks peter, and everyone who has helped me in my eventful first week as a beek.
If any of you are ever in Sydney, i owe you a cold one!
1st inspection tomorrow (they better have their boots spit and polished), i’ll put a couple of photos up if there’s anything out of the ordinary.
thanks again. will report back tomorrow.
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Hello my bee oracles.
OK, so first inspection done.
Arranged my nuc with honey, new, new, brood, brood, brood, new and honey. They were drawing out 2 new ones, one was still untouched. One honey had no action on it, and the highlights of the others are below.
Here are a few photos with what I think I saw. So this is a nuc that was installed 1 week ago.
I hope my comments and upload work as intended.
this looks old and circled bit looks suspisious and feels like it should be cycled out when the colony is stronger think this is some uncapped brood, not sure what else
not sure, but suspect hive moth larvae? 3 of them on the bottom board. theyr’e on a towl that i tipped the mummies from the chalk brood onto so it didn’t go on the grass, Starting to think I didn’t get a great nuc.
queen Elizabeth, named by my daughter, who got to catch a swarm at the local be club meeting yesterday. Very cool.
Any comments, tips or anything I missed would be greatly appreciated. Next inspection planned for 2 weeks from now, unless you advise me otherwise because of what you see.
Thanks guys, I’ll leave you alone after this… For a little while.
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