Today with the help of a friend, We pulled the covers on all five nucs to assess their hardiness. The first we intended to split so took off the top box and placed it on a new bottom board, than replaced the cover.
We then went to hive # 2, a newly caught swarm which was queen-less, and installed a new queen in her cage an closed it back up. The third hive was also a swarm but much larger, they were adjusting nicely to their new surroundings and had built up almost 2 whole frames of comb in 2 days, so I added another box under and closed it up. The last was a purchased nuc which was light when I bought it ( another hired hand had carried it to the car). An earlier inspection had showed the queen had a random laying pattern and I had expected to replace her, but the last queen I had was going to my friends hive. Upon inspection, the hive had perked up and their was brood on all frames and they had begun to store honey. It has been so wet and cold this spring I felt the hive would do well and would assess the queen later. Finally, We pulled a frame of brood with some honey and installed a push in queen cage and installed the last queen. This we placed in a nuc box and my friend will install it in his hive as his hive is queen-less. We will check on it in a week and see how it is progressing. With the push-in cage, she can begin laying right away and as the brood hatches, they can attend to business as usual without fear of her being killed. If a working layer is in the hive, she will be suppressed from laying by the pupae in the introduced frame. Big morning and only one sting where I pinched a bee.
We then went to hive # 2, a newly caught swarm which was queen-less, and installed a new queen in her cage an closed it back up. The third hive was also a swarm but much larger, they were adjusting nicely to their new surroundings and had built up almost 2 whole frames of comb in 2 days, so I added another box under and closed it up. The last was a purchased nuc which was light when I bought it ( another hired hand had carried it to the car). An earlier inspection had showed the queen had a random laying pattern and I had expected to replace her, but the last queen I had was going to my friends hive. Upon inspection, the hive had perked up and their was brood on all frames and they had begun to store honey. It has been so wet and cold this spring I felt the hive would do well and would assess the queen later. Finally, We pulled a frame of brood with some honey and installed a push in queen cage and installed the last queen. This we placed in a nuc box and my friend will install it in his hive as his hive is queen-less. We will check on it in a week and see how it is progressing. With the push-in cage, she can begin laying right away and as the brood hatches, they can attend to business as usual without fear of her being killed. If a working layer is in the hive, she will be suppressed from laying by the pupae in the introduced frame. Big morning and only one sting where I pinched a bee.
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