# stocking nucs



## bee_wrangler (Jan 21, 2007)

i remember reading that large queen producers leave the newly stocked nucs of bulk bees and queen cell in a warehouse for 2-3 days for the queen to emerge. Is this a standard practice with stocking nucs with frames of bees and brood and the queen cell. thanks for your input


Dan


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Dan

No, with brood you don't have as big a problem with the workers leaving with the virgin when she hatches. When doing mini mating nucs, which is what this practice is used for, if you don't lock them up, they will abscound once the virgin hatches.


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## bee_wrangler (Jan 21, 2007)

would stocking the nucs with frames of bees and brood and the queen cell at the same time one day before she emerges work?


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## danwyns (Nov 11, 2007)

*havent had absconding problems in mating nucs*

bee wrangler--

We run mating nucs (apx 200 mm cubes) with 5 frames and a 700 mL feeder.

We stock in the spring in an assembly line fashion with good result and no absconding. Bees are confined in their nucs for a few hours at most. Mini nuc frames overwinter in mother hives of 60 frames (3 std medium). Mother hives are moved to the stocking site 2-3 days prior to stocking to allow them to settle for a couple days. The morning of stocking we get bulk bees from standard hives to bolster nuc populations. We stock in the late afternoon to minimize the amount of time bees are confined and finished nucs are stacked in the shade until all are finished (it can be hot).

For establishing a nuc with 5 miniframes our optimum makeup is 2 brood, 2 stores, 1 empty drawn-- with bees on the frames. A scoop of bees is added to supplement population, ~500mL feed added and a queen cell(1 day from emerging) is inserted before closing the nuc and sponging the entrance (still a little ventillation through the anti-robbing entrance screen). If we're running short on brood we can go with 1 frame and add an extra scoop of bees. 

Just on dusk the nucs are transported to the mating yard and set into place. They are given a good smoke before the sponges are pulled liberating the bees. We find waiting til dusk and smoking keeps the bees from charging out (and not knowing which nuc they've come from). When they do emerge the following day it is in a more orderly fashion, and they seem to take the time to orient to their new location. 

Hope this helps.

dw


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>would stocking the nucs with frames of bees and brood and the queen cell at the same time one day before she emerges work?

"With the nucleus hives, a few spare combs, and provided with some long pins, I go to a hive, and without troubling to look for the queen-except merely to glance over the combs as I take them out-I insert the cells as quickly as possible. Instead of taking the time to fit them nicely, I give a hasty look at the cell, cut a hole in the comb I think will suit, put in the cell and fasten it there by running two pins through the base of it into the comb, one each way-sometimes one is sufficient. Advantage may be taken of a depression in the comb and so save cutting a hole. In this way I can insert the cells and form the nuclei in a very short time. If the queen should be seen during the operation, she is placed with the frame she is on to one side until all is finished, when she is put back into the hive after contracting it with division boards, if necessary. Should she not be seen it only means the loss of one queen cell, which is more than made up for by the time saved in not waiting to find her. I have often spent a considerable time looking for the queen in a strong colony and then perhaps had to give it up. Professor Cook recommends inserting the queen cells twenty-four hours after the nuclei are formed, but says: "We may do it sooner but always at the risk of having the cell destroyed." I very rarely find one destroyed, and I think the risk likely to be greater when time is allowed for the bees to commence building cells before giving them one. Occasionally it happens that a nucleus colony will not accept a queen cell even when it has been queenless for some little time. When this occurs a cell should be protected in a cage when placed in the hive until the queen emerges, when there is likely to be no further trouble. " --Isaac Hopkins, The Australasian Bee Manual, 1886

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshopkins1886.htm#mymethod


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

So am I correct then that if you don't have open brood in your mating nuc that you should leave the nuc closed for a few days, but if there is open brood they won't abscond once the cell hatches? It sounds like the NZ operation uses brood so that holds them.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

BerkeyDavid said:


> So am I correct then that if you don't have open brood in your mating nuc that you should leave the nuc closed for a few days, but if there is open brood they won't abscond once the cell hatches? It sounds like the NZ operation uses brood so that holds them.


If you have zero brood in the mating nuc, you will need to close them up for at least 3 days....but if you put brood in when you make the mating nuc, you should be good to go, as the brood will anchor the bees to the mating nuc. With mini's it is difficult to give brood unless you have the frames on a strong hive with a laying queen pior to making up your mini's.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

peggjam said:


> With mini's it is difficult to give brood unless you have the frames on a strong hive with a laying queen pior to making up your mini's.


Or you over winter your mini's so there's all the brood and bees you need already. One bonus...the queen can be removed and used in the apiary when the first round of cells is ready.


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## Jonathan Hofer (Aug 10, 2005)

I'm planning on buying package bees to stock my mini mating nucs, so as not to deplete my honey producing colonies too much. The mini nucs will be stocked with about 1 1/2 (1.5) cups of bees. The nucs will be made up Friday evening, and the queen cells added at the same time. Bees will be locked in, and allowed to fly on Monday morning. 

Two questions. 

1 - Will there be enough time for the bees to become attached to the mating nuc from Friday to Monday so as not to abscond with the virgin?

2 - I'm assuming the packages will be sold by the pound, so I'm wondering how many cups of bees there will be per pound of bees. 

jh


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## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

Jonathan Hofer said:


> I'm planning on buying package bees to stock my mini mating nucs, so as not to deplete my honey producing colonies too much. The mini nucs will be stocked with about 1 1/2 (1.5) cups of bees. The nucs will be made up Friday evening, and the queen cells added at the same time. Bees will be locked in, and allowed to fly on Monday morning.
> 
> Two questions.
> 
> ...


You could purchase extra queens with your packages and start the mini nucs well ahead of your queen cells with the purchased queens. This would give them a chance to build out the frames and get some brood going before inserting the queen cells. When you insert the queen cells, remove the purchased queens the night before and use them to make more mini-nucs or to make up five frame nucs from your stronger hives for swarm prevention.


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## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

what worked for us was to take a deep that could hold twenty mini frames and shake a package in them with a queen. Let them build up and then split them into their 5 frame mating nucs. Worked great. 

I would add that they overwinter awesome!!!!!


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## Brandy (Dec 3, 2005)

Along the same line as the package with the queen, is hiving the first, second, third swarm that you get into the mating nuc's and letting them, her, draw out and lay up the frames. Some of the small swarms that you would be combining later on seem to work perfectly, but it's a timing issue of when you need the nuc's vs. when your frames are ready.


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## Jonathan Hofer (Aug 10, 2005)

Those are excellent ideas. Never thought of them. 

I guess that's what Beesource is for 

JH


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## Jonathan Hofer (Aug 10, 2005)

*Cups of bees per pound*

Still no answer to how many cups of bees per pound.


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## stangardener (Mar 8, 2005)

on a recent tour of queen producers in the chico area of california a spam can of bees was used to stock the minis.
if i recall a spam can was about 4oz or 1/4#. please don't bank on that info though.


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## Jonathan Hofer (Aug 10, 2005)

So, there's 8oz to a cup, that would mean that there's two cups of bees in a pound. Does that sound about right?

jh


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