# trouble with shb in mating nucs



## WilliamsHoneyBees (Feb 17, 2010)

When you set your nucs up give them an extra shake or two of young nurse bees. If there is enough bees in your nucs to adequately cover the combs shb larvae shouldn't be a problem.


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## WilliamsHoneyBees (Feb 17, 2010)

When you set your nucs up give them an extra shake or two of young nurse bees. If there is enough bees in your nucs to adequately cover the combs shb larvae shouldn't be a problem.


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## s1sweetser (Aug 9, 2013)

I think that should help. Do you think I should try putting the mating nucs in the sun? Everything I've read says to put mating nucs in the shade.


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## WilliamsHoneyBees (Feb 17, 2010)

All my mating nucs are in full sun, I used to set them up through the woods but the beetles were killing me.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Once they are queen right the first time they are a lot easier to keep healthy - better demographics I guess. But if they fail to make a queen they can go down pretty fast. A wait and see position that goes on just a little too long can result in a mass of maggots.

At some point I shake them out and rebuild with fresh resources - but the same foragers sometimes. Hard to do with castles.

Obviously it gets progressively worse as summer goes on.


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

Humidity plays a big roll in shb
I had some 6 packs 1/2 frame length in mediums

With just a 3/4" entrance these were the first to scum to the shb

Each has its own 1/4" sub top under a regular top so i made 1 1/2" hole in each sub top and put 1/8" hardware cloth on for air to circulated 

Shb like a lot of humidity.

This helped a lot.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Put them up off the ground with the ant setup. Pallets with legs in cans of oil, covered with a pie tin so rain water doesn't displace the oil. Keeps out the ants and the beetles.


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## s1sweetser (Aug 9, 2013)

I am already set up that way to keep the ants out. The beetles can fly and have no trouble getting in.


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## Lburou (May 13, 2012)

I resorted to taking the frames out and smashing the larva and what beetles I could find (they had just hatched in the frass on the floor). Its been a month with no more shb or larva or frass visible when I inspect, I lucked out. It is true that when you let the new laying queen fill the frames, the bees do a better job of house cleaning. Half my hives are in the shade and half in the sun....I see more hive beetles in the shaded hives. HTH


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Oh, yeah, I forgot...we got beetles when the hives were on the ground before. The solution was a vacuum cleaner with a mini-vac attachment and _*schwoop*_ up the beetles, one frame at a time, putting them in a separate box temporarily. I only had about 21 hives, though. The beetle blaster traps did not catch very many, but the vacuum made short work of them,* and it was good, clean, sadistic FUN*! Then pour them out of the shop vac and into the soapy water.


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## Jgabbert (Jun 2, 2012)

I use screen bottom Nucs set up off the ground with one beetle blaster. Presently using 40 nucs to mate cells. I have had a few with beetles and put in a second blaster and it has worked so far. It seems that as long as the population is strong they push the beetles back. I have some nucs that are supered three high and are very strong. These never have any beetles at all.i try to keep them in partial shade, but the screen bottoms help them deal with the full sun. Our humidity is above 80% all the time and the only relief we get is winter time when our coldest days are in the mid 30's for a few hours.


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