Nuc's Queen Acceptance

Four days after introducing a new queen to the newly created NUC, I did a quick inspection to see if she had been released. She was and it seems like things are progressing normal.

I smoked the parent hive (bottom hive) lightly to see if it would produce the all too familiar buzzing roar of a queen less hive. I have never ever seen the queen from that hive and I was somewhat disappointed and worried when, during the split, she was not spotted. Luckily it sounds like I have nothing to worry about, the buzz from the hive sounded normal.

My next steps were to remove the queen’s cage out of the NUC and then create room for the 5th frame. The three dead bees inside the cage worried me for a bit. After I brought them in the house for a closer inspection; I noticed that they were workers and they weren’t part of the original bees in the cage. Why they died in the cage I have no idea. My hope is that the new queen is out and about, and these bees were disoriented and couldn’t make it out after falling in. Here is a short video of it.

The NUC is sitting on top of the parent hive and there is a double screen between them. There's about ½ inch between the screens which allows the parent hive to share its heat and ventilation resources with the NUC on top. I’ll inspect on Saturday for eggs. The Nuc is weak, but there is 1 1/2 frames of caped brood that should hatch any day now, and the new queen should be out and laying eggs. The chances are good that this will be the Nuc I will use to populate my TBH in two weeks time. Or so I'm hoping.