TRYING SOMETHING NEW by beekeeper Fred

Last spring several ECWBA members attended a bee seminar hosted by the Marathon County Bee Club in Wausau, Wisconsin.  One of the presenters gave a presentation on overwintering nucleus colonies; nucs for short.  This discussion peaked my interest because the presenter was from Hudson, Wisconsin, which is another 150 miles further north than our area and experiences slightly more severe winters than our area.  His nucs were wintered outdoors.   I figured if he could overwinter a nuc then maybe I could too!  My only concern was if he got lucky due to last winter being warmer than normal.  I am about find out.  NOTE: I think ECWBA member Grandpa Jack also overwinters nucs. 

This September I found myself with 3 leftover Ankle Biter queens when a potential customer in Florida had to cancel his order due to hurricane Irma.  This gave me the opportunity to set up three nucs for overwintering.  For any hive to overwinter successfully it needs an adequate bee population, sufficient food, and a weather tight home.  An overwintered nuc would need the same.  As per the recommendations from the seminar presenter I set up 3 double deep 5 frame nucs.  These nucs were nestled together to provide a little additional weather protection.  See photograph below.  The bottom box had three frames for the bees and brood and the two outside frames with capped honey.  If a nuc did not appear to have sufficient bees I put in a frame of capped brood (from another hive) that was beginning to emerge.  The upper boxes were a mix of capped honey frames and frames with drawn comb.  I then fed the each nuc heavily for about 6 weeks; letting the bees fill the empty drawn comb. 

Finally, to provide added weather protection I covered the nucs with 2 inch foam insulation on the sides and top.  Then a water proof cover was added.  These two actions were done after the weather cooled. See photographs.   I also gave each nuc one blast of oxalic acid vapor in mid September to knock down the mite population.  Hopefully these Ankle Biter bees will control the mites during the winter.   Now it’s up to the bees to survive the coming winter. 

There are several benefits that arise from overwintering nucs (providing I am successful).  One, I will have my spring packages ready-made long before I could get a package or nuc and at no cost to me other than my labor the previous fall.   Two, I know my queens will be of winter hardy local stock; not California factory queens of questionable background.  Three, the warm confines of these double deep nucs promote rapid population buildup in the spring and therefore have a better chance of making a good honey crop than a new package. 

Check back about April 1^st and I will let everyone know if these three nucs survived the winter. 

 The 3 nucs being heavily fed in September.  The entrance for the middle nuc is in the back.  This was done to minimize drifting between nucs.   I leveled the nucs before putting on the insulation. 

 Side insulation installed. 

 Feeders being removed and inner covers installed.   I temporarily sealed the inner cover holes to keep the bees inside so they wouldn't sting me.  I removed these before putting on the upper insulation.  Despite the cool temperature (~54F) the bees in nuc 19 were very active. 

Inner covers were topped with insulation.  A moisture vent channel was provided for each nuc by cutting a groove in the insulation. 

A side view of moisture vent

Insulation joints were sealed with duct tape. 

 Water tight cover installed and weighted with a few bricks.  Trying to be an optimist I made the cover is extra wide so I can overwinter four (4) nucs next year.