Creating a nuc to over-winter...

[CpnObvious]

As I stated in another thread:

We're going to start one more experiment tomorrow morning:
P1 (the original donor hive) now has a HUGE queen laying her little heart away!  I actually think we saw one more brandy-new queen in there... But not really sure if that's truly what she was.  However, there are still two more queen cells that are probably going to ?hatch? (If that's the right word) in the next couple of days.  Hive OR2 have a couple of queens cells also that should be nearing their readiness.  Tomorrow morning we are going to take those two frames, along with brood/honey/pollen frames and nurse bees from hive OR1 and combine them all into a 4-frame nuc.  I guess we're aiming for 7 hives this year?

Being so late in the year, I guess this would fall into the category of hopefully over-wintering a nuc.  The nuc box I have is only a four-frame.  There are 5 queen cells in it that should be emerging any day now.  Assuming one of the queens survives the mating flight, we won't have a fulling functioning nuc for a couple of weeks (that's my guess).  Once things really get going in the nuc, should we build another 4-frame box, or try to move them into a 10-frame deep?  Which would be better to try to over-winter them in?  As I type this, the hamster in my head is running faster.  I supposed I need to build a 2nd nuc box anyway so I can put a feeder in it.

I made and installed a robber screen last night because I was worried about the hive next to the nuc trying to get in.  Will the robber screen disrupt the queen, or will she remember how she escaped?

I think I had more to add to this, but I've been on a support call for 2 hours, so I may add more later.

[riverbee]

just my two cents........10 frame deep.

robber screen won't disrupt the queen unless she hasn't mated. i guess i would have moved the nuc, cuz sometimes queens can be ditzy, they may get out to mate, not sure they can figure out how to get back in through a robbing screen? or figure out how to get out?!............   sometimes i have not moved them, and the nucs got robbed out, so why i move them out and away from the bigger hives.

someone else can chime in on this, i always move mine and don't utilize screens.

[CpnObvious]

The queen(s) would definitely be unmated as they haven't hatched yet.  Maybe I'll remove the screen tonight to be on the safe side.  Thanks.

[tecumseh]

 a snip.... Which would be better to try to over-winter them in?

check out Michael Palmer's ideas on overwintering nucs < it appears to me to be essentially a ten frame hive made from two 5 frame nuc boxes stacked horizontally.

[robo]

I have had good success with the 5 frame poly nucs.



Otherwise I would suggest Tec's suggestion.  I know Michael Palmer overwinters 4 frame nucs side by side over a full hive.   He wants 3 1/2 frames of honey in them.

[Riverrat]

I have had great success wintering nucs on a 5 over 5 configuration.  It also makes splitting easy in the spring

[robo]

     5 over 5 will do much better than 10 wide.

[Bakersdozen]

I have had great success wintering nucs on a 5 over 5 configuration.  It also makes splitting easy in the spring

I don't consider myself an expert, but I have had success with this pattern as well.

[LazyBkpr]

    5 over 5 will do much better than 10 wide.

   I agree also..  the bees can move "UP" easier than they can move to the sides. I wintered a few 5 frame double nucs last year, and lost a couple, but the majority made it, surprising me...
 
   I wintered my nucs the same way i wintered my hives.. small upper entrance and sugar cake on the top bars. Two nucs slid together and wrapped as one with tar paper.  They did very well, only two of them ended up in the sugar. The ones that died seemed to have little effect on the nuc beside them surviving, but it cant hurt to keep two slid together. For the record, the ones that died were daughters of package queens.

   

[Papakeith]

I'll add my voice to the choir of the 5 over 5 configuration.  I had three colonies that had no business surviving do very well with this setup.