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Propagating Your Own Apiary
The What and Why
of Nucleus Colonies
September
January
March
Question:
Where can I get more BEES?!?!?
Where?
They’re
in this
box.
NUCLEUS COLONIES
Conventional system:
APR
Over-wintered
colony
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
Control swarming
Over-wintered
colony
OR…
Purchased
packages or
nucleus
colonies
$
Typical nectar flow
Alternative system:
APR
MAY
JUN
Swarming
Over-wintered
colony
AUG
Weak colony
Pre-swarm splits(nucs)
Wild Q. Cells
JUL
Mid-summer splits(nucs)
BCBA Queen Cells
Typical nectar flow
SEP
Over-wintered
colonies
NUCLEUS COLONIES
Why Nucleus Colonies?
1. To make new queens/colonies, i.e. allow nuc to raise
its own queen.
2. To split large swarmy colonies.
3. To isolate swarm cells, avert swarming.
4. To hive a swarm.
5. To store old retired queens.
6. To form mating nucs for queen rearing.
7. To establish a new queen for requeening large colony.
8. To move stock, i.e. brood, bees, stores, among colonies,
among bee yards.
9. To control Varroa by splitting and queenless period.
10.To winter nucleus units and queens.
Minimum composition:
• One frame mostly capped brood
• One frame nectar (or honey) and pollen
• Nurse bees from 2-3 frames of brood
comb
Source of Queen
“Wild” swarm cell
Laying or virgin queen
Queen cell from graft
Strategies:
•
•
•
Remove a few frames of bees, brood, stores from
strong colony, e.g. to discourage swarming, to
open the brood nest.
Completely break up strong colony into many
nucs, esp. during dearth.
Completely break up weak colony into nucs –
best use of weak colonies.
Avoiding robbing:
• Small entrance.
• Feed dry sugar or fondant, not syrup.
Longer term:
Adjust hive volume to match colony
strength: e.g. follower boards to reduce
volume, move to larger boxes and/or
add supers to increase space.
No nucleus box?
Honey super
Move queen to top box, with
NO capped brood or Q cells
QUEEN
Excluder goes here
Capped brood and all
queen cells stay here
QUEEN CELLS
Colony preparing to swarm
Rule: to prevent
swarming,
separate queen
from brood.
Two weeks later…
Old laying queen
New laying queen
Making up nucs:
How NOT to include the queen.
1. Remove top
brood box from
strong colony; set
it aside.
Bees,
brood,
&
Queen
2. Shake ALL the
bees into the
bottom box.
3. Put an excluder
over the box with
ALL the bees and
queen.
Brood
Empty box
No frames
“funnel”
Bees,
&
Queen
All the bees
& queen
4. Put the now
bee-less and
QUEEN-LESS box
of brood above
the excluder
Nurse bees
& Brood
One
day
Queen
One day later…
Distribute frames of brood
and nurse bees among
nucleus boxes.
Brood covered by
nurse bees
QUEEN
Critical points of nucleus colony formation:
• Don’t unintentionally add a queen.
• Give them at least a frame of brood and a frame of
stores (honey & pollen), both covered with bees.
• Ensure enough workers to care for brood: shake in
extra frames of bees if keeping in home apiary.
• Small entrance to discourage robbing.
• Feed dry sugar, not syrup, during dearth.
• Provide shade in hot weather.
Wintering nucleus colonies:
shoot for 15-20 lbs of stores
Wintering nucleus colonies: clustered together
Wintering nucleus colonies: atop strong colony
Nucleus
colony
Double screen
Strong
colony
Wintering nucleus colonies: outbuilding
Wintering nucleus colonies: outbuilding
Why Nucleus Colonies?
1. To make new queens/colonies, i.e. allow nuc to raise
its own queen.
2. To split large swarmy colonies.
3. To isolate swarm cells, avert swarming.
4. To hive a swarm.
5. To store old retired queens.
6. To form mating nucs for queen rearing..
7. To establish a new queen for requeening large colony.
8. To move stock, i.e. brood, bees, stores, among colonies,
among bee yards.
9. To control Varroa by splitting and queenless period.
10.To winter nucleus units and queens.
Yes,
Nucs