# need advice saving my split



## south MS rookie (Apr 26, 2014)

I made a five frame nuc this past Saturday with a mated queen. I put two frames of eggs two of brood and one honey. I checked yesterday and the little lady is out of her cage. After thinking through it, I realize that I didn't shake off nearly enough extra bees. There's very little to none on the traffic in this nuc. I have a good strong hive to pull from to save it. Is it as simple as just shake off more bees? Thanks for any advice.


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## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

There won't be much traffic most of the foragers went back to the parent hive. In a week or two activity at the entrance will pick up as younger bees graduate to foragers. What you are seeing is normal. If the population isn't low you shouldn't have to shake any bees.


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

Yes. Moving split 2 miles away from mother hive is best practice. You can loose alot of bees and this time of year the orient pretty quickly. I typically give nucs capped brood and shake a frame or two of nurse bees off open brood. 

If you don't retain enough bees often open brood is totally or partially abandoned. They do there best but its takes alot of bees to care for open brood.


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## franktrujillo (Jan 22, 2009)

just move the donors hive where the nuc is and the nuc in the donors hive position.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Like he said


franktrujillo said:


> just move the donors hive where the nuc is and the nuc in the donors hive position.


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## south MS rookie (Apr 26, 2014)

Thanks for the replies!


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

franktrujillo said:


> just move the donors hive where the nuc is and the nuc in the donors hive position.


Easier said than done. 2 deep + if laden with honey or putting a 5-frame nuc in my car and driving down the street. To each his own not everyone has this luxury but I don't want to fool around with moving a heavy box oe many heavy box when i make splits/nucs on multiple hives or make several splits off one hive.


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## biggraham610 (Jun 26, 2013)

I just give em one capped and one open, Honey, pollen and a spare, with a extra shake, there seems to be plenty of nurses left. Like someone else said, its a few days before activity picks up, once new brood begins emerging. Until then, just a few. G


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## Matt F (Oct 7, 2014)

For those more experienced -- if he's worried about it can't he just shake some more nurse bees into the split to be sure? Or would that cause some fighting in the hive and put the queen at risk?


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## dsegrest (May 15, 2014)

you probably don't even have a problem. Watch them closely and use a standard beekeeping backup procedure. Do nothing.


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## south MS rookie (Apr 26, 2014)

dsegrest said:


> you probably don't even have a problem. Watch them closely and use a standard beekeeping backup procedure. Do nothing.


That's the plan.  thanks


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## Frog Pond Farm (May 10, 2015)

I just split mine and it was the same way at the start. Give me time it should pop,pretty quickly


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## south MS rookie (Apr 26, 2014)

Matt F said:


> For those more experienced -- if he's worried about it can't he just shake some more nurse bees into the split to be sure? Or would that cause some fighting in the hive and put the queen at risk?


That was something I was wondering also


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## MajorJC (Apr 13, 2013)

I made my first 5 frame nuc/split two summers ago after I got my very first hive. They were building up fast and strong so I ordered a queen and made a split just like you did. They probably would have been ok if they were in direct sunlight. I made a rookie mistake and put my hives in the shade to make it cooler when working them. Since this new nuc was weaker than the main hive and didn't have enough bees to cover all the frames the small hive beetles (SHB) moved in and soon the bees absconded and the frames were trashed. All this was to say, if your nuc is not in direct sunlight, or even if it is and you see many SHB in your hives, you may need to add some more nurse bees or emerging brood.

Since beekeeping is different depending on what part of the country you are in, since I'm fairly close to you, I'm worried you might see results similar to my failure two summers ago.


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