I do have a few nucs ready at present, and they are calm, productive Italian bees with young, proven queens.
The nucs are five frames with one food frame and four frames of mostly brood that are ready for a larger box. The price this season is $220, supplied in a Corflute box.
Given this season has been tough with the drought, I suggest using wax foundation for the empty frames (I can supply extra frames with foundation embedded for $6 per frame). The empty Flow frames might take long to draw wax on , and this can slow the hives growth, but obviously your call.
Please let me know if youāre still interested and when you want to collect.
I still have your B feeder, is there an address I can drop it off to sometime? Youāre very kind to lend it to me, I feel bad about still having it in my possession.
By the way, my hive swarmed today, mustāve lost 3/4 of my bees. I think the Queen you gave me was such a prolific liar she outgrew the hive. I was under the impression that the hive wasnāt at risk of swarming for at least the first year 18 months.
Hopefully Iāve got a new queen, not too sure where to go from here
You did mention in passing when I was talking to you, about investing in a second brood box, I think I might do that, if my next queen is as good as the first one
Hi Chris
Sorry to hear they swarmed (but enjoyed the honest queen comment). The 8 frame brood box in the older design flow hives is really my one issue with them because it does leave you more exposed to swarming.
With the rain and improvement in flora in general swarm risk is extremely high at the moment after the quietest spring (swarm-wise) in many years.
You can wait for the new queen, but it will leave you with little more than a young nuc, or you could simply get a replacement queen who is already laying for the least disruption. I should be able to help you if you choose this option.
Finally, you will need to do weekly brood inspections now, because thereās a high chance of secondary swarms being cast off. You could find queen cells being made even after a new queen emerges and have to inspect every 7 days until they stop this behaviour.
I will give you a call tomorrow about the feeder and all of this if that suits you.
Regards,
John Devenish
All the Queens / Nucs i have got from John have been amazing. Very very good layers and perfect patterns and very calm. I ended up using 10 frame langstroth and Iām glad i did just for that extra room and gives me extra time. Sounds very unlucky that you had a swarm but with the rain we have had and nectar around the numbers will be exploding.
Yes, the queen I got from John was great. He has been really helpful, great advice, Unfortunately it looks like the replacement queen that John brought around a couple of weeks was disposed of by the hive. He has very kindly offered to bring another queen around. Fantastic service, and a really nice guy . I didnāt think beekeeping was such hard work! Steep learning curve here.
If you looking for a nuc @cathiemac in is the northern suburbs in Brisbane and @JeffH is at Buderim near Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast, 80 kās from central Brissy. I think Cathie still has a few and I know Jeff could fix you up Helen.
Cheers
Before you two exchange too much more personal information, I just wanted to let you know that this forum is open to internet searches from non-subscribers. That includes bots and others who love to spam, phish and robocall. Personally I would edit my messages to remove phone numbers, e-mails and addresses, and then use the Private Message function found when you click on a userās avatar. Those messages are not open. Just trying to look out for you @Kimba and @jfdevenish
