I went out today and check a few double nuc colonies that just - TopicsExpress



          

I went out today and check a few double nuc colonies that just were not getting heavier, dispite my feeding efforts. WIth plans to combine a few nucs, I started digging. Whoa...Wait a minute. WIth 4 frames+ a feeder over five frames, the top frames were only half drawn with little filled. But the bottom five frames? Fantastic shape. At least 3 or 4 frames of solidly capped brood with plenty of open feed and capped honey. Big fat young queens. I put them back together carefully and gave them a good glob of protein. Well worth the couple bucks it will cost to feed them a few more times! They gave this weary beekeeper some motivation to continue getting up in the morning before 0- Bee-dark-30 to mix up my syrup. . And these were the worst ones on the place. I found a few nucs like this early spring too. They were way light when they should have been well on their way to self sufficiency. When I checked them out, expecting the worst (Queenless-laying workers), I found they were frame after frame of solid capped brood. No more room for feed storage. Also no room for the queen to lay until that brood hatched You just cant tell by weight alone. I knew that, but still am surprised on occasion.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 23:56:56 +0000

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