The Bees have moved in to the NUC box. The home owner put some plastic around the box to make it withstand the rain better.
[CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VERSIONS IN NEW TAB/WINDOW]
When I opened the box up, the 3 frames that I put in were filled by the bees with uncapped honey. Sure sign there is a nice nectar flow going. I didn't see any brood/eggs. So I assume it's safe to say that the queen isn't out jet (the owner at certain times saw the bees come out 1 per second) we decided to leave the NUC box there for a few more weeks.
TBC ...
Nice the owner put the plastic over the nuc!
ReplyDeleteOne question: You said: "So I assume it's safe to say that the queen isn't out jet"
I thought that with a trap out, the queen never comes out, so you have to add a new queen (but get the benefit of having a bunch of bees already ready).
Yeah! the owner is really handy and thinks along. I like that ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've heard stories that the queen does come out.
When the worker bees all leave to get supplies, the queen has 2 options: starve or walk out. I don't know any statistics but I do know there is a possibility the queen comes out. That's why I want to leave the nuc box there for a few more weeks. The other thing I could do is put a frame with brood from another hive in this Nuc box. Then these queens can raise a new queen. Only problem is : this box is a 20 minute drive from my nearest hive with brood. How long will the brood survive without bees ?
It may take longer, but you could bring this nuc to your hive, transfer over the frame (minimizing the cooling of the brood), then take the nuc back. There would be some confused bees at the nuc location, but they would figure things out when you bring back the nuc.
ReplyDelete