Queens for splits or requeening

[doak]

Just wanted to title that for some in the rapid growth section. Bee yard expansion or what have you.
For rearing the queens you want the "cell building" colony to be big and strong. The cell "starting" don't have to be as big but of good size. It is advisable  not to use a "nuke" to build queen cells with.
You also would like to have a good drone colony that has a good queen if possible. Also try to keep the colony you want to rear  your queens from to a minimum of drones.
Once you have the capped queen cells, then you can put them in queen less nukes. It is then called a "mating" nuke. Once the queen is mated and you are sure she is laying a good pattern,  then she goes on her intended journey.

As with a walk away split, it's a coin toss if you don't have enough bees for the cell building.
Rear 3 or 4 good queens the right way then split a big 2 deep colony 4 ways and give three a new laying queen and you should be good to go. and leave the old queen in the mother hive, unless she needs re queened.
night jon boy, :)doak

[David LaFerney]

If you raise queens early (Say April) can you just keep some as spares by leaving them in small (one frame) mating nucs all season long and giving them more space as they need it?   In other words is a mating nuc with a cup full of bees a viable colony that can take care of itself as long as you don't expect it to build up enough to winter?

[doak]

I would want to keep about two frames of brood. make the nuke 4 or 5 frames of standard size. Gives you extra brood for adding to a weak colony to boost it till what is decided to do with it. Gives you an extra queen for ready use in case the event arrives, starting another colony and the list goes on. If you are running as many as 4 or more colonies it would not hurt to have several such nukes.:)doak