First of all, great informative and well educational videos you make!👌🏻😃 I haven’t read all the comments but my impression is that “the bees knows best” whatever we try to do. Personally I would just put one frame of eggs, larvae and capped brood at once in each nucleus box and basically doing a “walk away split”.
Stewart thank you very much for this series of on the spot queen rearing. I had a hive that swarmed (swarm caught) and I wasn't seeing any brood even though it had been plenty of time. I happened to catch the first segment shortly after you uploaded it. The following morning I transferred a frame of eggs and young brood to the hive, making four cuts just as you demonstrated on the eggs. The hive was completely broodless at this point. There are now two queen cells on one of the cuts and a single queen cell on one of the other cuts. I'll be moving this frame to a mating nuc tomorrow and re-queening that hive as I don't want that colony to continue to dwindle, but your first video was well timed. Thanks again.
Thanks Stewart. I have a question as I wondered why you destroy the additional queen cells rather than allowing the first emerging queen to destroy the ones left to hatch?
Hi Pete, There is a chance the newly emerged first queen will swarm with half the colony and not destroy the additional cells as they say happens in the books. Stewart
I have used ots and found it works best if you make a small hole in the foundation below the cell you cut down, I notice its natural for bees to build cells in such places. You chose your timing perfectly as it looked like the bees specifically made swarm cells not panic cells explaining why they rejected your invitations. ATTI ,western Australia.
Hi Davy, Thanks for commenting. I'm pleased it worked out for you. I had to stop halfway through filming because I couldn't understand why there were no queen cells where I had made the cuts. Bees will be bees I guess! Stewart
The Norfolk Honey Company we did at first buy a queen but they did not take to her, why we do not know why like you say Bees will be Bees So we followed what you suggested and success Please keep the videos coming very very helpful
Hi Stewart, Wached both you viseos on Nicot queen rearing - bought Nicot Kit from Bee Equipment and followed your step by step guide. On my first attemp the bees in the hopelessly queenless hive removed all of the 10 eggs and then made queen cells on a drawn comb frame. On my second attempt the bees just covered all of the cups with drawn comb. Any suggestions what I am doing wrong please. BTW Great videos on beekeeping in general, congrats keep up the great work
hi stuart , a quick question . I have brought 2 or these nuc boxes from the lads a bbwear as there shop is just down the road from me . I plan to do the same as you this spring to a hive . I'm going to cut an opening on the back of the brood box I'm going to split with a disc that I can shut it up after , the reason being is when the nucs are placed on the hive stand there will be a inballace of spread among the bees and I don't want to move the nucs around as if I do this as the queen flys for mating she may come back to the wrong box ?? am I best doing this or can I just not bother cutting out a back door ? cheers
Hi Jay, So, you're planning on putting two entrances on one end to carry out a "two nucs from one parent colony" split? It would probably work but the main issue I see is that you are unable to split the two nucs apart once formed should you want or need to. My preference would be to use two separate nucs but if equipment is an issue then go ahead and try it out. I am sure it can work that way but I'm equally sure that the bees will try to find a way to mess it up for you too! Good luck with it and do let me know how you get on. Stewart
hi stuart , I plan to build my best colony to a double brood same as your vid , I have 9 frames in each brood box (national) . I thinking of moving the original queen with one complete brood box away in the same apiry . then waiting for the other brood box on the original stand to make queen cells and then split the 9 frames into the double nucs, pinching 3 frames from the hive I moved that houses the original queen so I can fill the double nuc boxes and fingers crossed create build up 4 more colonys but before I start should I drill out a back entrance on the brood box (being built up to a double) so that when I split the bees will fly to both entraces on the double nucs ?? cheers
Stewart, Thanks so much for everything. My children and I have been learning from you for about a year now. a family favorite for sure! Can I use a queen excluder on the bottom to keep queens in until there is only one then let her go to mate?
Hi SDF, Thanks for your kind comments. Newly emerged queens are still very skinny when they head out on mating flights so they will probably just slip straight through the queen excluder. If it was an option I think more of us would be using it as a swarm prevention measure. Stewart
Hi M.K., Thanks for commenting. Some beekeepers do but I find that leaving more than one queen cell usually means you run the risk of swarming so I prefer to leave just one queen cell. Stewart
Hi P.P., Thanks for the question. The short answer is yes, provided the queenless colony has enough bees to provide sufficient royal jelly to the young larvae. Stewart
Queenless Bees raise Queen Cells when the eggs are only 3 days old, and its fed Royal Jelly. (either original Queen laid some, then swarmed.) Or in this Video, it's the Beekeeper who has removed the Queen, to another Hive. (*or destroys her if she has bad traits or genetics, in that case, eggs from another nice Queen raises the "next Queen" to be. It's her that turns the "cranky hive into a lovely hive" because all the former bees only live for x6 weeks (in summer) so cranky ones are repopulated by the good ones ! 🤗 🐝
Hi Stan, Many thanks for your comments. I see the guys have already posted links to Daniel and Tristan's website, so far they have worked really well for me on this first attempt. Stewart
Stewart, thanks so much for your great videos, I've watched many of them and love the way you handle your bees and try to copy you where possible. One question please, in relation to the 2 in 1 nucs that you made up recently. What do you plan to do with the two 3 frame colonies once they have queens? Will you move them into separate nucs or full hives?
Hi Beechpark Studios, Thanks for commenting. Some will probably have to go straight into full sized hives as I'm currently low on nuc boxes. I'll probably remove the strongest of the two and leave the other in the nuc box to make up a 6 frame nuc. Stewart
Excellent video. Looks like this is the easiest way to raise a few queens. Just curious as to why you remove all the queen cells but one. Wouldn't the first queen to emerge kill the others anyway? Thanks for the excellent videos!
Thanks again Stewart! Great video! If the hive is queenless, how do the eggs get into the queen cells? Do the workers move eggs into the cells? When you made the cuts in the comb, were you expecting that the eggs at the edge of the cut would survive and become queen’s?
So, on the spot queen rearing uses eggs available in the queen right colony and are moved into a nuc which is queenless. Any eggs in cells that are cut will usually be rejected by workers unless they are the only eggs/larvae available and then the workers will repair the cells and construct queen cells. Stewart
But the workers make the queen cell AFTER the queen has been removed. How does the egg get into the queen cell? I must be missing something. Thanks again.
@@ahorsley1027 The queen laid the eggs in the cells before she was taken away. It isn't necessary for the bees to construct the queen cell and then have the egg deposited into it. The queen cell is built around the already-occupied cell.
My guess would be that when the larva cells were cut down they were not cut fully all the way down to the foundation. If you don't they just repair them instead of making queens. Either that or the larvae were too old
Stewart, are those boxes exclusivesly for the UK national frames or do they work with the Langstroth hives? Also are they available for purchase in the US? I really love the setup of those boxes and would love to get some here in Louisiana.
Hi Lawrence, Thanks for commenting. As far as I know, they are not yet available in Langstroth but a design is in development. I am sure they will be available for you in the USA at some point but probably not this season. I will message the UK suppliers and find out. Stewart
Hi Stewart why not cut out the extra queen cells and put them on another frame with some nurse bees you increase the number of possible future hives with little risk of losing a lot of bees ? Even if they aren't the best of Queen cells
Hi Gee J, Thanks for commenting. The simple answer is a lack of equipment. I don't have huge resources and run out of boxes quite quickly. You're quite right, you could use the extra queen cells to increase on one or two frames and have extra queens/colonies to use. Stewart
Hi. Just after 15 minutes into this video, you cut out many open queen cells and left one closed queen cell. Would it have been better to have left an open cell so that you know that there is definitely a queen there? P.s what make are your gloves and where do you purchase them from? Thanks
Hi Vas, I don't normally leave an open cell and haven't ever really had many queen cells fail because I selected a capped queen cell. Honestly I don't think it matters a great deal. The gloves are available online, here's a link to the video with the details. ua-cam.com/video/Lwwske1sK24/v-deo.html Stewart
why destroy all other queen cells on the frame and only leave one? i would have thought that to leave them all would be the better option to be more certain of a new queen, once you have one she will deal with the others
Also, sorry to ask the question I did, I promise i will read a few of the other comments before i ask any future questions, as you seem to have answered mine 9 million times already before i asked it :)
First of all, great informative and well educational videos you make!👌🏻😃 I haven’t read all the comments but my impression is that “the bees knows best” whatever we try to do. Personally I would just put one frame of eggs, larvae and capped brood at once in each nucleus box and basically doing a “walk away split”.
Excellent!
Stewart thank you very much for this series of on the spot queen rearing. I had a hive that swarmed (swarm caught) and I wasn't seeing any brood even though it had been plenty of time. I happened to catch the first segment shortly after you uploaded it. The following morning I transferred a frame of eggs and young brood to the hive, making four cuts just as you demonstrated on the eggs. The hive was completely broodless at this point. There are now two queen cells on one of the cuts and a single queen cell on one of the other cuts. I'll be moving this frame to a mating nuc tomorrow and re-queening that hive as I don't want that colony to continue to dwindle, but your first video was well timed. Thanks again.
Hi Troy,
thanks for commenting.
I'm really pleased it worked out well for you. Good luck with your queen rearing.
Stewart
Thanks! Great video!
Thanks for the demo. 🙂 Just went to one of Mel's presentations a few weeks ago and bought his new book.
Thanks Stewart. I have a question as I wondered why you destroy the additional queen cells rather than allowing the first emerging queen to destroy the ones left to hatch?
Hi Pete,
There is a chance the newly emerged first queen will swarm with half the colony and not destroy the additional cells as they say happens in the books.
Stewart
I have used ots and found it works best if you make a small hole in the foundation below the cell you cut down, I notice its natural for bees to build cells in such places.
You chose your timing perfectly as it looked like the bees specifically made swarm cells not panic cells explaining why they rejected your invitations.
ATTI ,western Australia.
Best beekeeping UA-camr by a mile
Hi Stephen,
Thank you for your kind comments.
Check out my other content on my support page www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney
Stewart
Worked for me thank you very much
Hi Davy,
Thanks for commenting.
I'm pleased it worked out for you. I had to stop halfway through filming because I couldn't understand why there were no queen cells where I had made the cuts. Bees will be bees I guess!
Stewart
The Norfolk Honey Company we did at first buy
a queen but they did not take to her, why we do not know why like you say Bees will be Bees
So we followed what you suggested and success Please keep the videos coming very very helpful
Hi Stewart, Wached both you viseos on Nicot queen rearing - bought Nicot Kit from Bee Equipment and followed your step by step guide. On my first attemp the bees in the hopelessly queenless hive removed all of the 10 eggs and then made queen cells on a drawn comb frame. On my second attempt the bees just covered all of the cups with drawn comb. Any suggestions what I am doing wrong please. BTW Great videos on beekeeping in general, congrats keep up the great work
Took class on notching never saw it I’m a show me type person. Thank you!
hi stuart , a quick question . I have brought 2 or these nuc boxes from the lads a bbwear as there shop is just down the road from me . I plan to do the same as you this spring to a hive . I'm going to cut an opening on the back of the brood box I'm going to split with a disc that I can shut it up after , the reason being is when the nucs are placed on the hive stand there will be a inballace of spread among the bees and I don't want to move the nucs around as if I do this as the queen flys for mating she may come back to the wrong box ?? am I best doing this or can I just not bother cutting out a back door ? cheers
Hi Jay,
So, you're planning on putting two entrances on one end to carry out a "two nucs from one parent colony" split?
It would probably work but the main issue I see is that you are unable to split the two nucs apart once formed should you want or need to. My preference would be to use two separate nucs but if equipment is an issue then go ahead and try it out. I am sure it can work that way but I'm equally sure that the bees will try to find a way to mess it up for you too!
Good luck with it and do let me know how you get on.
Stewart
hi stuart , I plan to build my best colony to a double brood same as your vid , I have 9 frames in each brood box (national) . I thinking of moving the original queen with one complete brood box away in the same apiry . then waiting for the other brood box on the original stand to make queen cells and then split the 9 frames into the double nucs, pinching 3 frames from the hive I moved that houses the original queen so I can fill the double nuc boxes and fingers crossed create build up 4 more colonys
but before I start should I drill out a back entrance on the brood box (being built up to a double) so that when I split the bees will fly to both entraces on the double nucs ??
cheers
Stewart, Thanks so much for everything. My children and I have been learning from you for about a year now. a family favorite for sure! Can I use a queen excluder on the bottom to keep queens in until there is only one then let her go to mate?
Hi SDF,
Thanks for your kind comments. Newly emerged queens are still very skinny when they head out on mating flights so they will probably just slip straight through the queen excluder.
If it was an option I think more of us would be using it as a swarm prevention measure.
Stewart
Great question and answer!
Could you put them straight into a National instead of Nuc?
Would you not be increasing your chances of getting a mated Queen back by leaving all the queen cells on the frame ?
Hi M.K.,
Thanks for commenting.
Some beekeepers do but I find that leaving more than one queen cell usually means you run the risk of swarming so I prefer to leave just one queen cell.
Stewart
Hi newbee question, is the quality of queens produced in a queenless hive the same as those reared in a hive which is about to swarm ? TIA
Hi P.P.,
Thanks for the question. The short answer is yes, provided the queenless colony has enough bees to provide sufficient royal jelly to the young larvae.
Stewart
How did the queenless bees produce queen cells? Where did the eggs come from?
Queenless Bees raise Queen Cells when the eggs are only 3 days old, and its fed Royal Jelly. (either original Queen laid some, then swarmed.)
Or in this Video, it's the Beekeeper who has removed the Queen, to another Hive. (*or destroys her if she has bad traits or genetics, in that case, eggs from another nice Queen raises the "next Queen" to be. It's her that turns the "cranky hive into a lovely hive" because all the former bees only live for
x6 weeks (in summer) so cranky ones are repopulated by the good ones ! 🤗 🐝
man....i love your videos Stewart! thanks! where can i buy those 2 in 1 nucs?? thanks
www.bshoneybees.co.uk/polynuc I have one and they are indeed awesome
BS HONEY nucs designed by and for beekeepers. They are great.
Hi Stan,
Many thanks for your comments.
I see the guys have already posted links to Daniel and Tristan's website, so far they have worked really well for me on this first attempt.
Stewart
Stewart, thanks so much for your great videos, I've watched many of them and love the way you handle your bees and try to copy you where possible. One question please, in relation to the 2 in 1 nucs that you made up recently. What do you plan to do with the two 3 frame colonies once they have queens? Will you move them into separate nucs or full hives?
Hi Beechpark Studios,
Thanks for commenting. Some will probably have to go straight into full sized hives as I'm currently low on nuc boxes.
I'll probably remove the strongest of the two and leave the other in the nuc box to make up a 6 frame nuc.
Stewart
Excellent video. Looks like this is the easiest way to raise a few queens. Just curious as to why you remove all the queen cells but one. Wouldn't the first queen to emerge kill the others anyway? Thanks for the excellent videos!
Thanks again Stewart! Great video! If the hive is queenless, how do the eggs get into the queen cells? Do the workers move eggs into the cells? When you made the cuts in the comb, were you expecting that the eggs at the edge of the cut would survive and become queen’s?
So, on the spot queen rearing uses eggs available in the queen right colony and are moved into a nuc which is queenless.
Any eggs in cells that are cut will usually be rejected by workers unless they are the only eggs/larvae available and then the workers will repair the cells and construct queen cells.
Stewart
But the workers make the queen cell AFTER the queen has been removed. How does the egg get into the queen cell? I must be missing something. Thanks again.
@@ahorsley1027 The queen laid the eggs in the cells before she was taken away. It isn't necessary for the bees to construct the queen cell and then have the egg deposited into it. The queen cell is built around the already-occupied cell.
Are the Queen Cells that you put in the Nuc Boxes Uncapped?
Hi Christopher,
Thanks for the question. No, the queen cells were capped in this instance.
Stewart
My guess would be that when the larva cells were cut down they were not cut fully all the way down to the foundation. If you don't they just repair them instead of making queens. Either that or the larvae were too old
Stewart, are those boxes exclusivesly for the UK national frames or do they work with the Langstroth hives? Also are they available for purchase in the US? I really love the setup of those boxes and would love to get some here in Louisiana.
Hi Lawrence,
Thanks for commenting.
As far as I know, they are not yet available in Langstroth but a design is in development. I am sure they will be available for you in the USA at some point but probably not this season. I will message the UK suppliers and find out.
Stewart
Hi Stewart why not cut out the extra queen cells and put them on another frame with some nurse bees you increase the number of possible future hives with little risk of losing a lot of bees ? Even if they aren't the best of Queen cells
Hi Gee J,
Thanks for commenting. The simple answer is a lack of equipment. I don't have huge resources and run out of boxes quite quickly. You're quite right, you could use the extra queen cells to increase on one or two frames and have extra queens/colonies to use.
Stewart
Hi. Just after 15 minutes into this video, you cut out many open queen cells and left one closed queen cell. Would it have been better to have left an open cell so that you know that there is definitely a queen there? P.s what make are your gloves and where do you purchase them from? Thanks
Hi Vas,
I don't normally leave an open cell and haven't ever really had many queen cells fail because I selected a capped queen cell. Honestly I don't think it matters a great deal.
The gloves are available online, here's a link to the video with the details. ua-cam.com/video/Lwwske1sK24/v-deo.html
Stewart
kkkkkkk
Easy and convenient method but it doesn't work
Why destroy the queen cells and just let nature take it course on witch one lives.
why destroy all other queen cells on the frame and only leave one? i would have thought that to leave them all would be the better option to be more certain of a new queen, once you have one she will deal with the others
Hi,
There is a high percentage chance the first new queen to emerge will swarm, she doesn't always destroy the other queen cells.
Stewart
Oh, nice, i think as you have answered many questions i need to move to patrion,
I really appreciate your support.
Also, sorry to ask the question I did, I promise i will read a few of the other comments before i ask any future questions, as you seem to have answered mine 9 million times already before i asked it :)