Quote Originally Posted by Mellifera Crofter View Post
Do you put the queen in a nuc made up as usual with three frames of brood, Gavin? Or do you leave her with fewer, or no, brood frames and a lot of house bees? Or something else? And, I suppose, move her to another apiary?
Kitta
Hi Kitta

Usually one frame of brood (minus queen cells, plus the queen), one frame with stores and perhaps a frame or two frames of bees shaken in, plus four frames which are usually a mix of foundation and comb, the comb going next to the bees. Some years and in some locations you end up feeding them a little, weekly, in other years (like this one so far!) they build quickly and will fill a brood box by heather time. I don't shut them in or move them away, the presence of the queen holds most of them.

This gives me a simple means of swarm control, no heavy lifting of extra boxes, stability for 9 days or so if only an open queen cell is left in the main box (the nuc seldom tries to swarm though a couple have this year), leaves a strong unit capable of gathering honey through the rest of the season, and, crucially, fits my lazy/disorganised/too busy winter lifestyle when I never seem to get around to making those split boards fatshark now uses! (Maybe next year, though I still worry about the back).

G.