My wife and I installed our nuc into new Flow Hive 2+ one full week ago. When should we do our first inspection, other than looking to see if it has grown in terms of number of frames (beyond the transferred nuc frames) what should we be looking out for specifically that will shed light on whether it’s a happy hive or less than happy?
Thanks
Brett
An inspection after a week is important to make sure the transfer went well and the hive is queen right. It should be quick and focus on just making sure it is queen right. You may see the queen but if you see eggs and young larvae the inspection is a success, whether you find the queen or not. Close up and then inspect somewhere between every 2-3 weeks depending on the season and nectar flows.
Enjoy the journey
Thanks yep. Just complete; short and sweet and we saw the queen moving about going about her business. The start of some new comb too which was good to see.
It also look liked there were some queen cells being made; left them alone but is that the sort of thing to remove?
Hi Brett, welcome to the forum. I agree with Adam.
The other thing is to make sure that the added frames are up tight if they are foundationless. If using foundation, or fully drawn frames, you can evenly space them. If foundationless frames are not up tight, the bees will build comb off center of the frame, equal to the distance of the gap left.
Queen cells would be a concern. Why do you think there may be queen cells? Could you see if there were larvae or royal jelly? Where they capped or uncapped? Where were they on the frame?
If it was on the frame that came with the Nuc they could be “play cups.” They are the start of queens cells but not being used at the moment.
A Nuc by its nature should be bursting at the seams with bees. If it was in the Nuc a touch too long they may decide to swarm, building out the queen cell prior to transfer to the larger super. If this is the case then knocking them down want hurt. Swarm cells tend to be around the edge and bottom of the comb.
If the queen was damaged, and we can not see the damage most of the time, they may have decided to supercedure her. If this is the case I would leave. There may only be one or two and tend to be in the middle of the frame amongst open brood as they have converted a worker cell in a hurry/emergency.
It may pay to talk to the supplier of the Nuc and discuss as they hopefully know your local conditions and the condition of the Nuc when supplied.