How to Raise Bees in NUCS

Nucleus hives are miniature hives that serve many purposes.

Nucleus hives, or nucs, hold only three to five frames instead of the usual eight to 10 frames of a typical Langstroth hive. What they lack in size, nucs more than make up for in versatility. Unlike package bees which only contain adult bees and a queen, a nuc is a complete hive in miniature. They can be used to establish a new hive, rear queen bees or to artificially split a hive to prevent swarming. Nucs can also be used to strengthen a weak hive.

Things You'll Need

• Parent hive containing eggs, brood, honey and pollen stores
• Frames with wax foundation or drawn comb
• Nuc hive with a bottom board, hive body, inner cover and telescoping outer cover
• Bee brush
• Hive feeders

Instructions

1. Remove the outer and inner covers from the parent hive. Remove honey supers until you reach the brood chamber.

2. Search the brood chamber for frames with eggs and capped brood. Remove two frames of eggs and one frame of capped brood. Place these three frames in the center of the nuc box.

3. Remove one frame containing honey and pollen from the one of the honey supers in the main hive. Place the frame on one side of the nuc box. Place a frame with wax foundation on the other side of the frames.

4. Select a frame of capped brood from the parent hive. Sweep the bees from this frame into the nuc hive to ensure there are enough nurse bees to care for the brood in the nuc.

5. Place the inner and outer covers on top of the nuc box.

6. Slide the remaining frames in the brood chamber of the parent hive toward the center of the box. Replace the frames you removed with frames containing wax foundation or drawn comb. Add a frame with foundation or drawn comb in the honey super to replace the removed frame. Replace the honey supers and close the parent hive.

7. Feed both the parent hive and the nuc box a 1-1 solution of sugar syrup to encourage the bees to draw out the wax foundation.

8. Maintain the nuc in the same way as a regular-sized hive. Additional supers with frames for honey storage can be added.

Tips & Warnings

• Nucleus hives are ideally set up in the spring before the beginning of the honey flow. This allows both the parent hive and the nucleus hive for the honey flow.

• The bees will raise their own queen bee from the eggs or young larvae in the nuc box.

• Create nuc boxes to create artificial swarms to reduce overcrowding in main production hives. If done at the correct time, it fools the bees into believing they have already swarmed.

• Remove brood and worker bees from the nuc hive to build up weak production colonies. The new bees will hatch and build the population in the week hive in a few weeks.

• One nuc for every two production hives is a good ratio for beekeepers to maintain.

• If a production hive should lose its queen for whatever reason, a nuc hive can be used to requeen it immediately without having to wait three weeks for a new queen to begin to lay and bees to hatch.

• Always wear protective beekeeping gear when opening a hive to prevent possible stings to the eyes or face.

• Because of their small size, nucs are not able to store large amounts of honey and bees can deplete the stored honey quickly. Monitor nucleus hives monthly. If there is not enough stored honey, feed bees a 1-1 sugar syrup solution.

• In areas where Africanized honey bees are indigineous, it is not advised to allow the bees to rear their own queen. In this case, order a new queen and set up the nuc box once she arrives.

References

• University of Florida Cooperative Extension: The Advantages of Using Nucs in Beekeeping Operations
• Mid-Atlantic Apiculture & Extension Consortium: Nucleus Hives
• Beemaster: Nuc Boxes -- Starter Hives

Resources

• "Queen Rearing Essentials"; Lawrence John Connor; 2009