Uniting colonies with supers

[Japey Edge]

Hi everyone.

I'll need to start thinking about this soon. Queen right nuc will hopefully have accepted new queen by Saturday and I want her to head the big colony with two supers.

Of course I need to figure out the state of play in that colony with their recent swarm attempts etc.

But for the sake of a consistent thread - how would you unite a 6 frame nuc with an 11 frame + 2 supers hive?

[stechad]

Jazz,
Are all the boxes full of bees or could you remove the supers temporarily, and you really have to find the queen (not the new BS one)

[Japey Edge]

Yeah I'll have to find the local queen first - hunt her down somehow.
One super wasn't far from extraction. The other was just foundation last I checked 2 weeks ago.
I think if I took those boxes off there would be too many bees for the single brood chamber. I also wouldn't know what to do with an unfinished super of likely OSR honey.

[NigelP]

Of course I need to figure out the state of play in that colony with their recent swarm attempts etc.

And therein lies your biggest question..have they now got a virgin queen in there or not?
If you can...add a test frame with eggs/very young larvae. If they don't draw queen cells then you know not to proceed further with a unite.
Patience Grasshopper....

If they do draw queen cells it is fairly safe (although not 100%) to stick nuc in a full brood box and although I'm a fan of air freshener unites, I'd use the trusted newspaper unite...but only if your big colony draws queen cells on the frame you added....which obviously you destroy. Also always check for any other queen cells. Bees do nothing invariably.

One thing I would do is make sure the nuc is next door to the big hive...there are several things that can be done as long as they are close together. Lots of depends and several different ways to go.

[Japey Edge]

Cheers Nigel.
I did think putting the nuc in a dummied down BB over a newspaper unite may be the obvious option. However.. Say I find the queen and remove her, or test frame comes up queenless etc.
How would you unite the nuc (in BB) with a hive with 2 supers on?

And secondary question - what would the timeline be for the test frame? Check back for QCs 4 days later? Or a full week?

[stechad]

have a real good check for that queen and put a test frame with eggs to be sure hopefully you will be able to take off the nearly full super. Can't remember where but I have read of arranging as below.
super
QX
newspaper
brood (from nuc)
newspaper
brood
the bees would mingle from both sides then after a week you can then re-arrange the frames in the brood boxes with stores in upper box and brood, bee bread in lower brood.

[stechad]

you should have signs of queencells in 2-3 days

[stechad]

Sorry jaz I meant to say if you can get down to one super you could leave it in place then paper and new queen brood box.

[Steve 1972]

Jazz once you are 100% certain you have no Queen (i can have a look with you if you Wish) ..remove the Queen excluder and unite the nuc that is now in a brood box over the supers with news paper in between..the bees will be through the news paper within 24hrs or sooner..if you have the inspection board out you will see the chewed paper on the floor under the hive..after a couple of days go through the hive and get the Queen in the bottom brood box and juggle the brood frames about so all the eggs/ brood is in the middle of the brood box ..stick the Queen excluder on and then the supers and remove the brood box the nuc was in...there is a chance the Queen may have laid in the odd super but it is not the end of the world..any drones stuck above the excluder if any will fly out when you are inspecting..