# How to requeen hive w/ nuc



## thestainedglasschick (Apr 10, 2011)

I have an aggressive hive that I would like to requeen with the queen from a nuc in my yard. After I off the old queen, I was thinking of adding the frames from the nuc (with the new queen) into the top deep of the hive and separating the deep from the rest of the hive with newspaper. Will this work? Any other suggesions?

Thanks!
Steph


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Here's how I do it.
Kill the mean queen.
Wait ten minutes.
Put the nuc in the top box.
No newspaper.
Works great for me.


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## hemichuck (Oct 27, 2009)

seriously?


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## Rick 1456 (Jun 22, 2010)

Did that yesterday. Couple puffs of smoke for confusion Mine was a no queen situation though.


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## ralittlefield (Apr 25, 2011)

RayMarler said:


> Wait ten minutes.
> Put the nuc in the top box.
> No newspaper.
> Works great for me.


I used the same method with a small swam that I caught this year.

I pull a couple of frames of brood and bees from a hive and put them in a nuc. Waited a couple of hours to let them discover that they were queenles, and dumped in the swarm. I was a little worried about them accepting the queen, but had no problems.


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## iwombat (Feb 3, 2009)

I'd go the newspaper route. This late in the year, you don't have much wiggle-room for a plan B.


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## Paul McCarty (Mar 30, 2011)

I have just stuck two frames from the nuc with the queen in the bottom box before and it worked. A little risky - probably best to use three frames and place them in the top box. Don't believe newspaper is really needed, but it adds a layer of protection in case of a flub.


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## hemichuck (Oct 27, 2009)

I had a queenless hive that had been queenless for a few weeks and I combined a small hive from a cutout job I had done with them the same way your talking about. Next day I had a lot of dead bees laying out front and inside the inner cover and I still had a queenless hive. I just picked up a small swarm yesterday and I did a newspaper combine with this same hive.I hope I get better results.


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## Paul McCarty (Mar 30, 2011)

Direct release with the queen on the frames really only works good with all nurse bees on the those frames.


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## Rick 1456 (Jun 22, 2010)

I'll qualify a little. I guess I answered too shortly. I usually wait till mid afternoon. Most of the older forager bees are out. I make sure no queen, and a laying worker situation is not present. I use a good smoke cloud. I've had very good success doing this. Occasionally I get a few dead bees but that could be just from frames being moved. The queenless hive is wanting a queen and are receptive IMO. I also keep an eye on robbing. If the bees are on edge, it can change the scenario. I'm not advocating dumping hives together without some thought. I still use a barrier if I have doubt.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

hemichuck said:


> seriously?


Yes, on many occassions.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

hemichuck said:


> I had a queenless hive that had been queenless for a few weeks and I combined a small hive from a cutout job I had done with them the same way your talking about. Next day I had a lot of dead bees laying out front and inside the inner cover and I still had a queenless hive. I just picked up a small swarm yesterday and I did a newspaper combine with this same hive.I hope I get better results.


Yes, you'd have the problems you said. My way was queenless for ten minutes, not two weeks. There is a very big difference.


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## hemichuck (Oct 27, 2009)

So basicly if I had a small swarm or a cutout that I wanted to add into a split from an established hive I could just split the hive,make sure where the original queen was,smoke up the queenless part of the split and combine my new bees/queen from a swarm or split? Is there a better time of day to do this? I learn something new every day on here.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Yea, you could do that, it should work most of the time. As far as time of day, I'm not sure it matters, but I try to do any splits or joins near the end of the day into dusk, as they have all night long they can't fly and must get used to the new arrangements, and by morning they are ready to deal with the new day. But hey, that could just be me thinking and not what the bees would actually work best with. I've done splits or joins in all times of the day, depends on my schedule as well as what I think the bees would work best with, but as I say, I try to do them near the end of the day.


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## hemichuck (Oct 27, 2009)

I tend to agree with the end of day strategy,especially this time of year when robbing is bad.


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