Tag: nuc

14×12 Nucs For Sale & Downsizing

14×12 Nucs For Sale & Downsizing

Location: Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, GL12, UK

My honeybees have so far survived the winter. They are a flying and a very quick inspection in a couple of the hives has revealed eggs.

Efficient Beekeeping

Life is very busy at present and I am going to make my beekeeping more efficient through the following changes:

  1. Remove bee hives from allotment, so a bit less to worry about with neighbours and swarming
  2. Reduce my number of colonies to 2 – 4 (max) and keep these in the farmers field
  3. Use my new Beehaus which will make swarm control easier (due to some nifty techniques it enables) and gives other flexibility, e.g. sometimes using half the Beehaus to hive a swarm and then later combine into the main colony

By the way, there is a 10% discount on the Beehaus right now – it might just be for Easter. Please follow this link to find the sale: Beehaus 10% Discount. Please also note that Omlet (the manufacturer) is an affiliate of this site and has provided me with a Beehaus.

14×12 Nucs For Sale

This means I have bees and equipment for sale:

I have 6 nucs for sales (in 14 x 12 poly hives, photo below), that are either available now with 2017 Queens or by end May 2018 with 2018 Laying Queens for £200.

Please contact me now using Contact Form. First come first served. Please leave your phone number so I can call you back if needed.

Other Items For Sale

  1. Six 14×12 nucs for £200/each
  2. 14×12 cedar hives (assembled, brood, 2 supers, stand, roof, crownboard, good condition) – £180

I am located in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, GL12, UK.

Please contact me (via contact form) if you are interested and leave a phone number.

Videos & Photos Of Nucs (Feeder On Top):

Orange Nuc - 21 October 2016
Orange Nuc

The Beekeeper

Beekeeper With Insulated Hives
Beekeeper With Insulated Hives

I look forward to hearing from you.

I find the Queen alive and create a “nuc”

Day Three of finding starving and dead bees and I am still gutted.

In my angst, I poured too much sugar syrup over the starving bees in Hive One and the result yesterday was a frenzy of other honey bees (perhaps mine) robbing this hive.  It made me feel even worse.

I set out yesterday evening with the plan to dismantle the hive and throw any live bees in the grass so that they might enter Hive Two, but as I was doing a final check, I saw the marked Queen … and she was alive.  There is less than a cupful of bees to look after her, so 99% this colony is doomed, but in a last ditch attempt to save her and the remaining bees I decided to try and create a “nuc”.

I started trying to pull out all the dead bees out of the comb with tweezers but it was taking too long.  So I shuffled the frames to give the bees there best chance.  I also moved the one dummy board to help keep them warm.

I fed them this evening and blocked up the entrance for the next 24 hours to prevent any further robbing.

The weather forecast for next week looks good but I will be surprised if this colony lasts long.

Has anyone else nursed such a small nuc of bees with no eggs or larvae, so late in the year, through the Autumn and Winter? I would love to hear from you.

23/09/31 update: There were no bees in the feeder last night. Today the hive was being robbed again. The feeder was full of robber bees this evening.  I have blocked them all in for three days to prevent robbing and perhaps the robber bees will make it home?

Further Reading

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