An afternoon in the Apiary catching queens from the Mini Nucs #australianbush #beehive #beehivemanagement #beehives #beekeeping #bees #beeswarm #beevlog #honey #honeybees
This is such a great hands on video. Thanks for the commentary too, really good to know your thinking as you encounter different situations. I'm keen to know how you deal with remnant hives once they've finished their queen cycles.
Hi mate, I’ve got a new mini Nuc set up ready to go just had a couple of questions. I’ll have some cells getting capped Tuesday from a nice queen of mine. Can you tell me what bees I need to add to the Nuc, when to add them and when do I add the cell. Cheers mate
I will try and help. Where are you located? We’re in summer here so very hard to get bees to establish a mini nuc. Much easier in spring. In spring you can start one of these with a cup of bees, 250ml. In summer that won’t be enough. I would use twice as much. The stronger you make it the better, but if you shut them in you have to be careful they don’t overheat. You must use young bees. Shake or bump a brood frame into a container and allow a few minutes for the old bees to fly away and scoop up the young bees that are left. Young bees are more likely to stay with the mini. Old bees will just fly away. You need to give the bees a reason to stay in the box. The typical way to do that is make up the mini when the queen cell is ready to hatch. Close them in with the cell and liquid feed included and don’t open them until the queen has emerged and the bees are used to her. 24 - 48 hours. By then they should be building some comb. Obviously you mustn’t let them overheat. If I was going to start one of these now I would use a drawn out comb from an existing mini, preferably with some brood. It gives the bees a reason to stay.
Just curious did you source the mini nucs local or did you order from alibaba or something similar? Im in the US and all the mini nucs are rather expensive so i was contemplating ordering some from alibaba if the shipping was reasonable.
I get them through a local supplier. I have look at Alibaba but have never actually ordered through them. They are expensive which is why I’m moving more towards my homemade version. However you only need to raise one queen in these to justify the cost.
no doubt I have 4 queen castles that have 3 chambers with 3 deep frames each that work great but am looking at adding some smaller units to get some more queens made with fiew resources.@@bennybeekeeper
I like to use queen castles too. I got rid of all of my 10 frame gear in favour of 8 frame so I don’t have any queen castles anymore. The reason I got minis is because when I do grafting I end up with more queen cells than I need so I just put them in a mini.
The queen nifty and fast. Always walking to the OTHER side of the frame.
That true. How do they know we can see them
This is such a great hands on video. Thanks for the commentary too, really good to know your thinking as you encounter different situations. I'm keen to know how you deal with remnant hives once they've finished their queen cycles.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Grabbing queens makes my hands sweat
🐝
Hi mate, I’ve got a new mini Nuc set up ready to go just had a couple of questions. I’ll have some cells getting capped Tuesday from a nice queen of mine. Can you tell me what bees I need to add to the Nuc, when to add them and when do I add the cell. Cheers mate
I will try and help. Where are you located? We’re in summer here so very hard to get bees to establish a mini nuc. Much easier in spring.
In spring you can start one of these with a cup of bees, 250ml. In summer that won’t be enough. I would use twice as much. The stronger you make it the better, but if you shut them in you have to be careful they don’t overheat. You must use young bees. Shake or bump a brood frame into a container and allow a few minutes for the old bees to fly away and scoop up the young bees that are left. Young bees are more likely to stay with the mini. Old bees will just fly away.
You need to give the bees a reason to stay in the box. The typical way to do that is make up the mini when the queen cell is ready to hatch. Close them in with the cell and liquid feed included and don’t open them until the queen has emerged and the bees are used to her. 24 - 48 hours. By then they should be building some comb. Obviously you mustn’t let them overheat. If I was going to start one of these now I would use a drawn out comb from an existing mini, preferably with some brood. It gives the bees a reason to stay.
@@bennybeekeeper mid nth coast nsw
@@bennybeekeeper thanks for your help mate much appreciated and keep the vids coming I’m really enjoying them
Cheers. Good luck
Just curious did you source the mini nucs local or did you order from alibaba or something similar? Im in the US and all the mini nucs are rather expensive so i was contemplating ordering some from alibaba if the shipping was reasonable.
I get them through a local supplier. I have look at Alibaba but have never actually ordered through them. They are expensive which is why I’m moving more towards my homemade version. However you only need to raise one queen in these to justify the cost.
no doubt I have 4 queen castles that have 3 chambers with 3 deep frames each that work great but am looking at adding some smaller units to get some more queens made with fiew resources.@@bennybeekeeper
I like to use queen castles too. I got rid of all of my 10 frame gear in favour of 8 frame so I don’t have any queen castles anymore. The reason I got minis is because when I do grafting I end up with more queen cells than I need so I just put them in a mini.
What are you using for a top bar is that a straw
It’s a paper straw with a bamboo skewer through it
What is tge purpose of catching the queen? What are you gone do with it?
I use the queen to start a new hive or I sell it. The mini nuc is just to give her a chance to mate and start laying.
@@bennybeekeeper thank you