thank you Bobby. makes sense on the super. I will tell my trainer
This is my step son that is now in about his 3rd year of beekeeping just trying to help me get started and I ask him about the super and he said it was meant to allow the brood to expand due to concerns of overcrowding. he estimates 6 or 8 weeks before adding a honey super.???
I agree.
Stress on EMERGING.
Adding just a brood frame would overwhelm the existing colony.
I frame of emerging brood will give you three frames of bees ready to nurse the next lot.
1 Like
sorry to hear of the less than stellar Nucs you received: makes me feel very lucky indeed: we got a Nucleus consisting of 7 frames (5 completely full) with a fresh queen- and our local beekeper charged us all of $50 AUD (around 36 USD). He also delivered and installed it- and gave us a free bee keeping lesson. The Nuc was installed in January and has taken off- the bees have nearly capped all 7 flow frames as winter looms. Have to remember to send him another thankyou.
Thought I would give an update on the condition of our nuclei, given the variable experience here. Above, I wrote:
http://forum.honeyflow.com/t/should-i-feel-slighted/5855/5?u=dawn_sd
Last weekend we took delivery of two 5-frame nucs from BeeSafe Inc, San Diego. I would guess that each nuc weighed 30-35 lb. The supplier installed the queens several weeks before delivery and made sure that they were laying. The nucs were delivered in the usual cardboard transport boxes, and he assured us that they had only been in that box for about 8 hours. The boxes were each enclosed in a nice white net bag, which was a very good thing, because many bees had escaped!
As @Dee wrote about nuc installation, he recommended a very similar process. He suggested we let them settle in the apiary in the hive location, but keep everything closed for a couple of hours. Next thing was to take the netting off, and open the entrance to the box, but donât transfer the frames. He told us to transfer the frames the next day. His reasoning was that the nuc will send out of a lot of foragers, making the transfer less of a fight with a big bee population. He also said that he has found that the queen is less likely to be in a panic if you wait a day before doing the transfer.
So we followed his advice. Unfortunately the next day was forecast to be a bit windy, so we had to work fast, without time to take photos or video. Anyhow, both nucs were totally packed. One was 2 frames of capped honey and pollen and 3 frames of very nice brood. A few drone cells and no queen cups. The other was a little more worrying. Three frames of capped or largely capped honey and much less brood - probably only 1.5 frames. I asked the supplier about this, and he apologized that because of the recent nectar flow, the queen probably got honey-bound. He said that if the laying and brood pattern didnât recover in a week or two, he would happily replace the queen for us. Canât get much fairer than that!
So now the bees are hard at work in their new hives. We will take a look this weekend, but so far they seem busy and happy in their new location. I think we were very lucky with our nuc supplier, and I would certainly purchase from him again.
2 Likes
WOW! They did that in less that 8 hours! Bees are awesome! Natural comb has such amazing organic shapes.
Hi Semaphore
Hopefully your local beekeeper is near the Blue Mtns, west of Sydney because I will be needing a couple of nucs come Sept. If you are able to assist, passing on your supplier details would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Max
1 Like
sorry we are in South Australia- and I think we were very lucky to get a nucleus for $50 - I donât think that was a commercial thing- just a friendly beekeper who was curious about the flow hive.
Arenât they wonderful.
Iâve collected a swarm in a cardboard box and hived them within an hour and found eggs in comb they had made on the âroofâ
1 Like
I got 5 frame nuc full for $145 in Blue Ridge, Ga
Full Warranty for all services provided!
Just checked out your bad suppliers advert, this was on bottom, should take them up on it? 