Wintering at will in the nucleus
To save spare queens in winter, I made a nucleus for a quarter of the standard frame. Its internal dimensions are 410X180X XI60 mm. The thickness of the walls is 25, the height of the overburden is 70 mm. The nucleus was divided by plywood partitions into three compartments, in each of which he placed three frames (165X130 mm) of section 25X18 mm. In the large nesting frame there are four cores, their bees of the main family are prefilled with honey and perga. Outside the walls of nucleus hives are painted in light colors.
At the end of August, I had a family with a uterus in one nucleus, and in two other, the same strength, without a uterus. They had to be united. To do this, I removed the partitions in two cores, put the rail into the center, turned the frames 90 њ and set them in two rows. The united families arranged in the first row on four frames, in the two extreme ones there were 400 g of honey, in the middle – 150, only 1.1 kg. In the second row put four frames with honey for 400 grams in each, only 1.6 kg.
Free space, which served as an obstacle to the progress of bees in cold weather to the main stocks of feed, filled four pieces of honeycomb and gave this family 1.5 liters of syrup. On examination in early September, I saw that the bees of three seeds had assembled a nest on four frames near the tap hole. In the second row, four frames were with honey. He prepared this nucleus for wintering so. In one hood, he placed two multi-hive beehives with bees, and between them put the nucleus, previously covering it with felt by the sides. From above put moss and dry leaves in a layer of 20 cm. In the ceiling at the rear wall drilled a hole 5 mm in diameter.
Examining the nucleus in the second half of March, found on four frames quite a bit of honey. Wintering a tiny family went well.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)Wintering at will in the nucleus