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Offline Zweefer

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Nuc hive management
« on: June 26, 2020, 08:48:39 am »
So, this is the year I decided to up my game and try keeping a nuc on hand.  I started with an extremely weak base, and have worked them up towards a solid hive.  My question is, what do you do to keep them from out growing the space? I get that you pull a frame of brood here and there, but do you just throw those in another nuc and do and OTS queen? I do not necessarily want / need extra nucs around, but could make that happen.  Later in the year as we get closer to winter, that does not seem like a viable option however...  the obvious answer would be to put them in the traditional hives... My other hives are already going gangbusters, and don’t necessarily have room for more brood frames - they all have honey supers on.  Should I add another box in between and put frames there? I do not want to encourage the queen to come up that far, as I do not use excluders.   I know LazyBkpr has kept several hives in 5 frame boxes in the past, and I believe there are others on here as well... what does your hive management look like, and how does that differ from a traditional hive? 
I am putting this under 101 as there is nothing like this here yet, and I believe many others can learn as well without it getting lost in the general forum...
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Offline iddee

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2020, 12:13:13 pm »
I would add a five frame box on top, maybe 2 or 3, as needed.. Then, there are different options.

1. Place in a 10 frame or two for winter.

2. Sell a nuc for 150.00 with queen and let the nuc raise a new one in   frames left.

3. Sell frames of brood from the stacked nuc for 25.00 each.

4. Break it down and reinforce weaker hives going into winter.
 
5. Sell 10 or 20 frame hive and bees for 250.00 to 350.00.
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Offline RAST

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2020, 01:27:24 pm »
Mine started out playing around making some splits last fall with thoughts of selling some nucs this spring. I got too busy making and selling vaporizers to properly deal with making an selling nucs so I boxed all but these two. Both top nuc boxes are honey in the 4 stack, I pulled one box off of each stack and extracted. Going to split each one into two, plans are to do this next week. I was only going to keep two to four hives this time around and this will put me well over ten.



« Last Edit: June 26, 2020, 01:31:07 pm by RAST »
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2020, 10:45:22 pm »
Iddee pretty much covered it...   I will add,...   add more nuc boxes on top, when you have three or four 5 frame boxes total.. make queens, and split them all into nucs with the new queens, feed and build them up to two  or three boxes to make it through winter in the nucs... in spring, the ones you pulled through winter will bring a premium as overwintered nucs.
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Offline Zweefer

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2020, 11:46:34 pm »
So now I gotta get into queen rearing?   :D
I do OTS at the moment, but have actually been looking at the nicot system, as grafting seems like a large learning curve to me...
How many did you keep vs sell LazyBkpr?
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Offline iddee

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2020, 07:07:44 am »
""So now I gotta get into queen rearing?::

Interpreted.......... So now I gotta get into money making? 

If that becomes a problem, you can send it to me by bank draft. I'll take care of it for you.   :yes: :yes: :yes:
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Offline Zweefer

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2020, 08:35:37 am »
Good! I e been looking for a new broker!
What is your average ROI?  :laugh:
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Offline iddee

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2020, 11:39:34 am »
"What is your average ROI?"

All it brings in.   ;D
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Offline RAST

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2020, 04:58:11 pm »
Got three out of four splits done this morning before the heat/humidity got to me and for whatever reason the bees were extremely pissy this morning, made it more difficult. Maybe they already knew a thunderstorm was coming later. That hive stand was a monkeybar that a playground was replacing.

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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2020, 07:21:34 pm »
MotherinLaw has thrown a wrench into the plans so far this year, but I AM getting at least enough time to treat the bees etc..  With a little luck, I will be splitting like a madman next year.  Zweef I sold a couple dozen overwintered nucs at 200 dollars each.. wishing I had them back now!  I'll get up there again....
   Managing nuc's is a great thing to do for the new beekeeper who wants to get into his hives more often. They need checked a lot more and will swarm WAY sooner if they are not managed...
   Managed;
   Pulling frames of brood when they are getting full. Shaking extra bees into the grass and let them pick a hive to go back into, or combine them with a weaker hive to strengthen it, etc... use the nucs for your resources, not the production hives... bees in nucs almost always pull worker comb instead of Drone comb. Keeping a hive working by swapping in new frames and feeding them is a great way to BOOST your good comb supply.
      I love nucs, and I really can't WAIT until my days are spent working with my bees and fishing again...
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Offline RAST

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2020, 07:46:02 am »
Yesterday was day 7 for those four nucs, went in for the first time and all four queens were still caged. Surprised me, I figured some would have been out. Candy mostly gone. Bees were all gentle on the cages so I turned them loose. Got to watch two getting groomed on the top bars and two just wandered down in the frames. I'll check for laying in a week.
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Offline Jen

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2020, 03:33:56 pm »
Hi Zweefer  :)  I Love Nucs! They're fun and easy, and you make $$$ I treat them just like a full hive, when they are full of brood add another box. I usually have a couple nucs to winter over but not now so far. I do believe tho that Wisconsin winters are much colder than upper northern California.

You are in Wisc .. right?

So you push the nucs together for the winter, that helps keep them warm. Haven't lost a nuc yet to winter conditions, and we get snow here.
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Offline Zweefer

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2020, 08:56:46 pm »
Yep at least a couple days in the -20 with wind chill area are not uncommon here.  I was asking more mid season management...  especially when your hives are full and don’t have room for additional brood frames...
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Offline RAST

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #13 on: July 11, 2020, 08:08:08 am »
Zweefer, down here a nuc with a laying queen (yeah back to queen rearing or purchasing) will sell pretty fast. Or throw another nuc and frames on top. Iddee's list is spot on.
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Offline Jen

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Re: Nuc hive management
« Reply #14 on: July 11, 2020, 12:23:45 pm »
"especially when your hives are full and don’t have room for additional brood frames..."

Sell them or give them away. Here in upper Calif you can get $150 for a 5 frame nuc, 3 frames of brood, 1 frame of honey, 1 frame of drawn wax for queen to lay in. Not including woodenware.

"mid season managment"

Trust me, they will find you...  ;)



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