# Tried something different with OTS this afternoon



## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

You know there are a lot of new beekeepers on this site, and many of them may not know that On The Spot = OTS. It would be nice for you to exert the effort to type it out one time. So they can begin to learn and feel a part of things. This is true of any acronym.


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## DarbCal (Jan 23, 2011)

I'm glad it worked good for you and I'm looking forward to hearing how nuc performed. My queens are a little behind yours, but I'm hoping for good result.


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## thehackleguy (Jul 29, 2014)

Brad, why are you not placing notched cells in a full strength hive? With OTS the notched cells should go back into the parent hive (as described in the book) and the queen moved with some brood and bees. Just curious.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

thehackleguy said:


> Brad, why are you not placing notched cells in a full strength hive? With OTS the notched cells should go back into the parent hive (as described in the book) and the queen moved with some brood and bees. Just curious.


I almost did it that way, then backed out. I had the queen in the nuc at one point, but decided to try raising the cells in a strong nuc. Reasoning was, we are just starting our honey flow and due to the cool and wet spring the bee numbers in my hives aren't built up as much as I'd like for them to be to forage for honey. I have yet to have a hive that I have felt must be split to keep from swarming. I need splits to build my hive numbers, partially to recover from winter losses and also to expand. If I placed the notched frame in the parent hive they would not continue to have a population increase going into the main flow. They might put up more honey as the unsealed brood gets sealed but I just didn't feel it was the right thing to do under the circumstances.

Truthfully I have never read the book on OTS, and have gathered how the procedure worked from reading online. I experimented with the procedure a little last year to get the hang of it. Last year I made a couple of viable and productive queens by notching one frame and placing it in a split with 2 frames of bees. I figured with the strong nuc and four notches the nuc would be able to make good queens without being overloaded. I would like to see 6 good cells come out of this attempt. I plan to go into the nuc Wed or Thursday and cull down to 6 cells so the bees can focus on those. If they haven't started 6 good cells by then, I'll cull the weaker looking ones. 

I like to experiment so I figure worst case scenario, I'll get one or two good cells and won't have wasted many resources.


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## thehackleguy (Jul 29, 2014)

Gotcha, I live not far from Mel Disselkoen (the OTS originator) and have talked to him a few times. Obviously if it is working for you then it is ok, but Mel says that when he was developing the system he tried a whole bunch of configurations and only recommends placing notched cells in full strength hives (at least 4 full frames of bees strong) because they will raise the best queens.

I'm going to be raising some queens with the system this year and I like hearing everyone's experiences.


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## dsegrest (May 15, 2014)

thehackleguy said:


> Brad, why are you not placing notched cells in a full strength hive? With OTS the notched cells should go back into the parent hive (as described in the book) and the queen moved with some brood and bees. Just curious.


That is not what my book says. I attended a Mel Disselkoen seminar and he put the notched frames into a nuc. 2 frames of brood, 2 frames of food and an empty comb.


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## Thershey (Mar 12, 2014)

You must have a one off book of Mels. He is adamant that the cells should be raised/capped in the parent colony where maximum resources are abundant. He moves the capped queen cells into nucs a week after notching.

That said, Mel is experimenting with a Dolittle version where he would place the notched frames in a Nuc for 24 hours to get queen cells started before he moves them back to the parent colony over an excluder to be capped before moving into nucs for emergence.


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