The presenter on this topic, Adrian Quiney, has about an 80%
success rate in overwintering nucs in the Hudson, Wisconsin area
( about 20 miles east of Minneapolis/St. Paul area). He also has
hives in 3 apairies so he wasn’t a novice promoting radical untested ideas. His aim for overwintering nucs was to break
his dependence on purchasing package bees every spring. Hudson has a slightly colder winter climate than ours.
His first comment was that you need a good varroa mite
control strategy prior to attempting to overwinter nucs. It can be chemical based, bee species based
or brood break based. That said here is his process for overwintering nucs.
He constructs his own 5 frame nucs from ¾” wood, but most
suppliers also sell a 5 frame nuc. A 4 frame
nuc may work but all of his experience is based on 5 frame nucs. A 5 frame nucs is essentially a 8 or 10 frame
deep simply cut down (narrowed) to hold 5 frames.
Each of the overwintering nucs is composed of two 5 frame deeps stacked one upon the
other. The bottom box has no holes. The upper box has ¾ to 1 inch hole. This is for ventilation or a winter exit in
case the lower entrance is blocked by snow.
The bottom board and entrance reducers are essentially a cut down
versions of standard size equipment. Don’t
be afraid to make your own equipment.
The presenter was by self-admission only a beginning wood worker. Corner joints don’t need to be quality
dovetail joints, but can be simple rabbit joints or no joints at all. Some of his nucs were made of scrap
lumber.
On the top he places some sort of thin plastic sheet. Almost any type will do; an old feed bag,
plexiglass, etc. The main purpose of this sheet is to
prevent the bees from eating into the next layer. That next layer is 2 inch thick foam
insulation cut to size to act as a cover.
In the summer a rock or brick is used to hold everything in place.
For nucs he plans to overwinter he starts the process in
early June. First he picks a full
size and full strength hive (2 deeps) he wants to propagate. This hive is already a winter survivor. (Yes, he is sacrificing getting honey from
that hive this year in return for more hives next year.) A full strength hive is used since it is better able to raise quality emergency queens. So he
has 16 to 20 frames of bees and honey available for dispersal amongst 4 to 5
nucs. Next he locates and removes the
queen. She can be used in a nuc or
elsewhere. Next he goes through the 2
deep full size hives and puts in notches in area of the brood nest that have 1
day old larvae. (See the article by Grandpa Jack about notching frames to
promote queen cells) This full strength
hive that is now queenless sets to raising emergency queens. An alternate would be to insert purchased
queens if you have some special genetics you are trying to get into your
operation.
The early June start is chosen based on 2 factors. The bees need enough time to raise the new
queen and brood. Starting later than
early June does not allow enough time for build up before fall. You also want to minimize the number of
varroa brood cycles the nuc goes through prior to the fall bee brood raising
break. Less varroa equals better
survival. Also the act of starting the
queeless nucs provides a built in bee brood break in early June that also sets
the varroa back. Personally, I would
probably give the donor hive a oxalic acid vapor treatment just prior to
splitting it.
Seven days after doing the notching you inspect for queen
cells. The queen cells should be capped
at this point. Hopefully, there are many
cells on a number of different frames.
He limits the number of queen cells per frame to 2. He removes any more than two. (If you are carefull somethings you can raise a queen from removed cells). This minimizes virgin queen fighting.
Now he distributes the 16/20 frames among the nucs. 1 frame with at least 2 queen cells, 1 frame
with capped brood, 1 frame honey, 1 frame with foundation. Try to distribute any remiaing bees to balance out the nuc bee strength. So you end up with 4 to 5 nucs.
Then he leaves the nucs alone for 3
weeks. At that time inspect for a laying
queen. Expect a 20-30% failure rate. If
there is not a laying queen you need to either add a queen or re-combine the
queenless nuc with a queenright hive.
This prevents the queenless nuc from getting laying workers.
At this 3 week point he also adds the second brood chamber
box with 5 frames to the nucs.
In mid August he weighs the nucs. He feeds those that don’t weigh 50 pounds
gross weight (hive, bees and honey). He
carries his bathroom scale out to the apiary for the weighing. His data showed the hive weight declined 12 to 35 pounds over the winter.
For winter he lines up the nucs next to each other so they
are sharing a wall and thus minimize heat loss.
All entrances face south. He is
not too worried about drifting because the bees won’t be out foraging do to the
lower temperatures. He partially closes
the upper vent hole. Essentially he cuts a cork in half and stuffed it in the vent hole for the winter. He then puts a plywood cover over the
top. This cover has a 3 inch lip to
overlap the exposed 2 inch thick foam insulation outer cover. The plywood prevents mice from chewing on the
foam. Some plastic sheeting can be added to prevent water damage to the plywood cover.
He showed data over about 10 years with a 80% winter
survival rate.
You can see of Adrian's work on Youtube. Follow this link and click on Videos.
You can see of Adrian's work on Youtube. Follow this link and click on Videos.
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