Transferring Frames Of Brood From Nuc To Hives

[Jen]

Okay so, I'm not going to totally disregard Scott's suggestion, remembering that I sucked up an entire 2 box hive of mean hot bees this spring. I do have my swarm catching friend here in town that I could donate extra brood to. Eliminating brood would be a very last resort.

I learned a lot on this thread! Thanks! 

[Chip Euliss]

You can also winter them in 3 deeps.  It's actually a recommended configuration for wintering here in cold country but I have a friend in TX who winters in 3 deeps too.  You'll just have more material next spring to get your hives up to production strength quickly.  I didn't look to see where you are in CA but if in an area that gets cold, you'll need to get your brood in the bottom boxes so they can work their reserves from bottom to top.

[Jen]

Hi Chip, so in order to stack nucs, then there would be queen excluders between each nuc?

[Chip Euliss]

I'd just add the brood to a 3rd brood box and cull your oldest (or poorest performing) queens.  You'd end up with a hive that is 3 deeps high and them break them into 2 hives (or your target number) next spring and add fresh queens.  You can winter them as doubles, singles or even 5-frame nucs with a little TLC.  If you want to keep your queens, you can probably winter them without too much trouble.  If you're in the valley (I lived in CA from 1975 to 1990) or where you get 50 degree or better days every few weeks, you should be able to winter your nucs without much or any prep work.  If you're colder, you could butt them up against one another (to minimize surface area), wrap them in insulation (the silver stuff they use for water heaters works fine), reduce the bottom but crack the lid (I make lids with an upper entrance) to vent carbon dioxide and water vapor out the top and set them someplace with southern exposure.

[pistolpete]

I've never actually done it, but my understanding is that you start treating the Nuc much like a 10 frame hive and just give them a second 5 frame box on top.  No queen excluder, since this is not a honey production unit.

As for your earlier question, about mid June I usually have a couple of hives that have 10 full frames of brood.  That's 10 frames spread out over two deep brood boxes.   There would be a lot more hives like that in May, but I split them so they don't get to that point and swarm.  6 to 8 frames full of brood is more normal.