1. GCBA May 2014 Dan O’Callaghan (ocallaghan@irishhillfarm.net)
Making Summer Nucs
GCBA May 2014
Dan O’Callaghan

2. Definitions (for remainder of this presentation)
Split – Making a new colony from an existing – making a nuc is a type of split.
Nuc – A Nucleus Hive, a 3-5 frame colony

3. Why Nucs? Save $$ replacing losses Increase production (more hives)
Decrease production (less hives/fewer bees)
Prevent swarming
Produce bees for sale
Re-queen or raise queens
Deal with ‘hot’ hive
Mite control
???

4. Using Nucs Many recommend maintaining several nucs
1 nuc per 2 hives common, 1 – 1 gaining popularity
Some uses (other than selling bees)
Keep ready queen replacement on-hand
Augment hives during flow
Queen rearing
Summer increase for overwintering
Create nucs in summer, overwinter for rapid expansion in spring
Details in Larry Connor’s “Increase Essentials” and/or kirkwebster.com

5. Nucs
What is a Nuc?
A nuc is a mini-hive containing a small colony of bees, typically 3-5 frames.
May be in own box or in divided standard box
This is a picture of Joe Latshaw with some of his nuc’s. Joe specializes in raising queens.
(pic “borrowed” from Dana Stahlman presentation)

6. Nuc Boxes Commonly used options to house nucs
Buy/Make nuc boxes sized to hold 3-5 frames
Solid bottom
Removable bottom ‘mini-hive’
Deep – Medium – Shallow
Polystyrene (Styrofoam)
Divider board(s) w special bottom boards to split full size ‘standard’ box into separate chambers.
Mini mating nucs/frames for queen rearing

7. Some Nuc Box Examples

8. Finding the queen?
Very important to find the queen/know where she is when splitting or making nucs
Methods:
Visually find old queen while splitting (very time consuming, not always possible or effective)
Use queen excluder(s) to confine queen to 1 box 4-5 days prior to split (requires 2 visits)
Split without finding, check 4-5 days after split, look for eggs, re-queen box with none (not efficient for production hive, queenless period, requires 2-3 visits)

9. Making Nucs Typical Nuc creation
May use single or multiple ‘donor’ hives
In each nuc chamber, add:
1 - 3 frames of brood/bees
Shake bees from 2-3 other brood frames
1 – 2 frames stores (honey & pollen)
Frames of foundation/comb to fill
Queen
May re-queen as in standard split
May move old queen from donor hive
May let them raise own queen

10. Making Nucs How many frames of brood/bees?
Deep frame has about 6,400 cells
@75% emergence, about 4,800 bees/frame
About 1/2lb (1600) nurse bees needed to cover each frame of brood
Laying queen about 1,000-1,200 eggs/day

11. How many frames of brood/bees?
Chart from “Increase Essentials, Larry Connor (slide)

12. Early Season Nucs 4-way (Mississippi) splits:
Requires 1 strong double-chamber hive
All resources – bees, brood, stores – are divided equally into 4 separate units.
May be in divided chambers, most often centered in single-deeps with remaining space filled with frames foundation/comb
Usually all 4 are re-queened
Usually require feeding as flow has not started and goal is to get them into production ASAP
Used by commercial pollinators for rapid early season build-up/increase
Good method for dealing with large ‘hot’ hive
MUST have queens as no drones available for mating

13. Mid-Season Nucs
Usually used for swarm control. Goal is to keep production hive intact but stop swarming.
Strong, crowded production hive, with or without queen cells
Amount of bees/brood/stores varies. If more than 2 frames of each need to be removed, consider multiple nucs
If queen cells available, cells go into nucs, queen stays with original colony
If no queen cells, must add at least 1 frame of eggs and open brood if letting bees raise their own queen
Feeding is not usually required as the flow is in progress
Letting bees raise their own queen is usually viable as drones are available during swarm season.
Also a good method for preserving an ‘old’ queen rather than ‘squish’ during spring-requeening

14. Late-Season Nucs
Used mainly for overwintering – getting “off the bee package treadmill”
Select from good production hives
Use the minimum amount of bees and re-queen method necessary to make a healthy population in the time between make-up and winter.
Queen method varies – raise own, cells, locally raised
Feeding is variable. If flow is steady, not needed, if dearth, is required.
Letting bees raise their own depends on time/flow/drone availability.
Overall goal is population strong enough to survive winter without exceeding nuc box capacity

15. Late-Season Nucs Select from good production hives. Some traits:
Queen productivity
Colony Productivity
Colony Temperment
Hygenic behavior
Survivor/Resistant stock
???
(photos plagiarized from Dana Stahlman)

16. Late-Season Nucs
Use the minimum amount of bees and re-queen method necessary to make a healthy population in the time between make-up and winter (chart). Some variables:
Time of year/temperature
Flow or dearth status
Queen method on population growth start
Laying queen ~week
Virgin queen/cells ~3weeks
Raise own queen ~5-6 weeks

17. Late-Season Nucs
Feeding necessity requires monitoring and may change throughout the season.
Early summer, may not need during flow
Mid-summer, probable dearth, must feed
Early fall, depends on flow
If more than 1 or 2 frames are foundation, best bet is to feed regardless of flow

18. Overwintering Nucs Suggested timeline:
Mid-June, make nuc with one frame of brood & queen cell
Late June/early July, monitor for feeding requirements
Late July, begin feeding
Late Fall/early winter, when temp consistently below 50, crowd nucs together (optional)
Winter – emergency feed if needed
Early spring – move survivors into full-size boxes as needed.
Photos courtesy of Dr. Joe Latshaw

19. References www.honeybeeworld.com/spring/splits.htm
“Increase Essentials” by Larry Connor.
Dana Stahlman OSBA presentations: “Summer Management” “Management of Nucs”
Dr. Joe Latshaw latshawapiaries.com/uploads/wintering-nucs.pdf