Nucs becoming nectar bound.

[mikemilespitcairn]

Our Association has made up several 6 frame nucs at there apiaries and the queen cells placed in them appear to have yielded emerged queens. My concern is the brood frames have been filled so quickly with nectar, there is no where for the queen to lay once mated and ready to lay. Will this be a problem? Will the bees make room for her to lay or will they just abscond? Other than replacing nectar bound frames with fresh foundation, is there any thing that can be done to create room for the queen to lay but still keep the colony within a nuc?

[The Drone Ranger]

Our Association has made up several 6 frame nucs at there apiaries and the queen cells placed in them appear to have yielded emerged queens. My concern is the brood frames have been filled so quickly with nectar, there is no where for the queen to lay once mated and ready to lay. Will this be a problem? Will the bees make room for her to lay or will they just abscond? Other than replacing nectar bound frames with fresh foundation, is there any thing that can be done to create room for the queen to lay but still keep the colony within a nuc?

Paynes and Maisemore nucs can have a second brood body added

[mikemilespitcairn]

Thanks DR, we had considered that but we were trying to keep the colony to one box for sale to new bee keepers on our beginners course. I suppose we could reconfigure them to one box once we get 3 frames of brood established.

[gavin]

Mike, bear in mind that nucs with virgins are best left undisturbed for a couple of weeks at least and minimise disturbance after that. I've lost quite a few queens over the years from Paynes and mini-nucs by interfering too much.

In this good weather I'd leave them alone for a fortnight then have a quick check for laying. There is bound to be some space for laying, even a small one. At that stage if the box is choked with stores, take a couple of full frames out for winter feeding and replace with comb or foundation.

[The Drone Ranger]

Thanks DR, we had considered that but we were trying to keep the colony to one box for sale to new bee keepers on our beginners course. I suppose we could reconfigure them to one box once we get 3 frames of brood established.

Yes Mike you need space I don't think you can just deliver a nuc with a tiny patch of brood and the rest blocked with stores
If they get going well there will be enough brood to leave some on the site when you drop to one box
There's no disturbance just put the second box on
If you have a drawn comb for the centre that would be better still
best of luck
John

[Adam]

Another option is to spin out some of the frames and if the water content is higher than 20%, give it back to another colony.

[mikemilespitcairn]

Thanks for your suggestions gentlemen. We will probably add the extra brood body and sort them out to a well stocked nuc once we see sealed worker brood.