# Splitting first year nuc



## Thershey

Should be no problem as long as you fed them syrup AND pollen sub well to keep them drawing comb and raising brood. I'm pulling queens this weekend to force several hives to requeen during the dearth. If you need a good locally bred queen or Nuc PM me, I'll have both available this weekend.


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## JasonA

daweez04 said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I installed a nuc in April, it has been doing great! I would like a 2nd hive, and put out some swarm traps, but have yet to catch any.
> 
> I am running 2 10 frame deeps for my brood chamber, they have brood on about 15 frames. Could I make another nuc off this and have enough time to build up for winter with heavy feeding? Or should I just get this hive through winter and do a split in the spring?
> 
> thanks!


That is exactly what I did. Granted I'm on the other coast but it should work for you. I pulled the queen 2 frames of brood, 2 frame of honey and frame of honey and pollen. Make sure the brood is emerging so the queen has a place to lay. The honey and pollen is for the nuc until it has foragers. All the field bees will fly back to the parent hive leaving only young non foraging nurse bees. I actually added a 2nd deep nuc and alternated foundation for them to draw. Feeding them if you need to to encourage wax production.
You can leave the queen in the parent and just split a frame with eggs/young larva and resources (shake in lots of nurse bees) for the nuc to make a queen. Wiser beeks advised me to move the queen to the nuc (which I didn't think I had done, but I had...) because the strong parent hive would stand a better chance of making a new queen and the population wouldn't get so low they were weak and may be invaded by SHB (which you may not have), wax moths and robbers.

I hope this made sense. The is my first split and I'm a first year beek. Good luck!


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## gezellig

Plenty of time yet for them to build up with feeding, and the brood break will do them good to for the mite control. An after solstice queen is second only to a supercedure queen come next spring for early build up. Even if they didn't get built up exactly like you want, you could over winter them as a nuc. Nucs usually over winter as well as a full size colony and better.


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## dsegrest

JasonA said:


> That is exactly what I did. Granted I'm on the other coast but it should work for you. I pulled the queen 2 frames of brood, 2 frame of honey and frame of honey and pollen. Make sure the brood is emerging so the queen has a place to lay. The honey and pollen is for the nuc until it has foragers. All the field bees will fly back to the parent hive leaving only young non foraging nurse bees. I actually added a 2nd deep nuc and alternated foundation for them to draw. Feeding them if you need to to encourage wax production.
> You can leave the queen in the parent and just split a frame with eggs/young larva and resources (shake in lots of nurse bees) for the nuc to make a queen. Wiser beeks advised me to move the queen to the nuc (which I didn't think I had done, but I had...) because the strong parent hive would stand a better chance of making a new queen and the population wouldn't get so low they were weak and may be invaded by SHB (which you may not have), wax moths and robbers.
> 
> I hope this made sense. The is my first split and I'm a first year beek. Good luck!


I split a hive last year and it turned out fairly well. I am planning on splitting all three of my production hives after the honey flow is over this year. I will possibly split them into 3 or 4 nucs each. They are all double-deeps full of bees now.

Are you going to Lake Junaluska next month for the NCBSA meeting?


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## JasonA

dsegrest said:


> I split a hive last year and it turned out fairly well. I am planning on splitting all three of my production hives after the honey flow is over this year. I will possibly split them into 3 or 4 nucs each. They are all double-deeps full of bees now.
> 
> Are you going to Lake Junaluska next month for the NCBSA meeting?


I'm going to split my least productive hive up into nucs too. Not sure yet if I will buy queens (if I can find them) or let them make queens. I hope to find eggs in my next inspection for the parent of my split. It's been hard to stay out of it.

I doubt I will be going to Lake Junaluska. I wish i was though.


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## beedeetee

daweez04 said:


> Could I make another nuc off this and have enough time to build up for winter with heavy feeding?


Yes, but...our flow is about over around here. Heavy feeding of the nuc will be dangerous. I would tend to make the nuc up with at least two frames of honey. Set it someplace that won't be it's permanent home for the rest of the day. The next morning before bees are flying, move it to it's permanent position. It seems to only take one forager that remembers where those frames of honey are to start a robbing attack. After it's started, it's almost impossible to stop.


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## daweez04

Thanks for the info. 

What is the latest I one should make a split? I ask because I would like to get my honey super frames drawn out this summer so they are ready to go for next year, so longer I have a full strength hive, more likely that is the happen.


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## daweez04

beedeetee said:


> Yes, but...our flow is about over around here. Heavy feeding of the nuc will be dangerous. I would tend to make the nuc up with at least two frames of honey. Set it someplace that won't be it's permanent home for the rest of the day. The next morning before bees are flying, move it to it's permanent position. It seems to only take one forager that remembers where those frames of honey are to start a robbing attack. After it's started, it's almost impossible to stop.


I am in the suburbs. So I am hoping I should have enough forage around to keep the bees happy.


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## Ravenseye

I'd sure split it if things were strong and food was available. I had a nuc that built up fast a few years back and it swarmed in July...effectively splitting themselves. Sure wish I had done it before they did. I didn't get the swarm but the old colony did fine.


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## beedeetee

daweez04 said:


> I am in the suburbs. So I am hoping I should have enough forage around to keep the bees happy.


What I'm saying is that if you have to feed, feed the large hive and give capped honey to the nuc.


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