Would it be possible?

[MarkF]

I'm curious, if you bought a queen and put her and the 4 or 5 nurse bees that she comes with on a frame with honey and pollen and kept them in a temperature controlled hive, over time would they be able to build up, or would the nurse bees not be able to make enough food for the brood to get started. I'm not worried about how long it would take to build up just if she could do it?

[BjornBee]

I have always read, that you need a minimum of about 200 bees for the colony to survive. Go below that, and normal functions break down.

[Brian D. Bray]

The only concievable way that might work is in a small OB hive with all the attendent bees being newly hatched.  That way they may live along enough for some brood to hatch but that's problematical as 6 bees, counting the queen, can't begin to cover a brood nest.

It's unattainable objective.  2oo bees makes a cluster about the size of a tea cup and that is really the lower limit for covering a brood nest sufficiently to successfully raise bess to maturity.

[MarkF]

Thank you for the replies, my initial idea was that if you could control the temperature that they would not need too cover the brood, but the more I thought about it I realized that the problem would be feeding the brood. I guess I'll just have to rethink the idea.

[Michael Bush]

No.  It won't work.  As Bjorn said, even under ideal conditions it takes at LEAST 200.  Under normal conditions 200 won't work either..

[Utah]

I had a very small colony that I gave up hope on this last winter. The size of the cluster was no bigger than a medium sizeed apple. They had plenty of honey at first but on a few warmer late winter days the neighboring hives robbed them of the rest of their honey.

So, I figured I had nothing to lose by giving them some left over frame honey and I stuck a narrow 25 watt light bulb inside a frame feeder for the rest of the winter and I fed them syrup. I used a top entrance so the extension cord fit easily into the hive top but I duct taped the top entrance closed to retain heat. There was another very small bottom entrance. The light melted a hole in the side of the plastic feeder but no big deal.

Well, today this teeny little hive is now my most productive one. It grew like crazy!! Has not swarmed yet but I am watching it. As of two weeks ago, I had already pulled about 20 pounds of capped honey off of it.

I definitely think small hives can be nursed along and it does not take very long to get them up and competing with the other large hives with a little extra care and winter heat.

[kathyp]

you can always try adding a frame of brood (capped) and nurse bees.  that gives more workers and more coming.  they don't have to be so fussy with capped brood.  still a crap shoot, but an interesting experiment.  put them in a nuc.