Over Wintering Nucs by Grant Gillard, of Jackson, MO, at the Will County Beekeepers meeting at the Weitendorf Agricultural Education Center in Joliet, IL on February 18, 2017

1. Grant F. C. Gillard
gillard5@charter.net
www.slideshare.net

2. Benefits
 Overwintering nucs cheaper than buying nucs
 Don’t need purchased queens in the spring
 Your queens, optimally produced, accepted
 Your bees, locally adapted stock
 Live nucs ready to fill winter dead outs (hives)
 Nucs to sell to others (cash flow)

3. Best Three Reasons
Price (not free)
Availability
Quality

6. The “Trick”
 Enough “Bee Bodies” to keep cluster warm
 Enough stores to provide fuel to keep warm
With limited space,
where is the balance between the two?

7. The Process
Queen Rearing - June 23
Making up the nucs - July 21
Preparing for winter - September 1

8. Preparing for Winter – Sept 1st
 Fall flow begins around September 1st
 Fall flow lasts 3 to 4 weeks into September
 Will feed 2:1 sugar syrup until they won’t take
anymore, around Christmas
 If I’m smart….add a candy board
 I want two brood cycles prior to fall flow (42 days)

9. Making up the nucs – July 21st
 Make nucs 42 days prior to September 1st
 Two or three frames brood, drawn comb – mated Qs
 Or, adding more frames to my mating nucs – my Qs
 Take a two-deep colony and allocate frames
 (leave existing queen in one nuc, make three)
 Laying queen on July 21st
 Nectar dearth – feed 1:1 syrup

10. Best way to introduce queen
 When purchasing a mated, caged queen
 Make a nuc in the middle of the day (nurse bees)
 Screen entrance for 24 hours
 Add queen in the cage
 Leave attendants with the queen, if any
 Do not remove the corks protecting sugar plug
 After four days, manually release the queen

11. Queen Rearing – June 23rd
 Goal: Mated queen in the nuc on July 21st
 Queen rearing begins 28 days earlier
 Start queen rearing on June 23rd
 NICOT queen rearing kit
 Mating nucs – two frames of open brood
 Positive: queens mated after the summer solstice lay
longer going into winter (Mel Disselkoen)

12. The Process
Queen Rearing - June 23
Making up the nucs - July 21
Preparing for winter - September 1

13. Problems and Challenges
 Feeding during a dearth – robbing (no HBH)
 Set nucs in a separate yard (also make feeding easier)
 Small Hive Beetles love small colonies
 Queenless or new queen issues – beetle problems
 Queen rearing and mating in mid-summer less
successful than swarm season in early May

14. Another Challenge
Optimal Winter “Too Nice” Winter
--+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+----
10° 20° 30° 40° 50° 60°
Stores last longer More active
Clustered up Stores consumed
Potential freezing Potential starvation
**little cool for syrup

15. Candy Board
 1 cup of water, heat to steaming/low boil
 5 pounds of sugar, bring to a boil, stir often
 Add a splash of lemon juice or vinegar
 Cook until clear (260°) then remove from heat
 Let it cool a little (230°) stir vigorously
 Pour into feeding rim or waxed paper lined cake pan

16. How I cook candy boards

17. Sugar Cakes/Bricks
 25# Sugar
 1 quart apple cider vinegar
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 12 cups sugar
 1 cup water
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 tablespoon water per 1 lb. sugar
Stir and blend completely, press into mold, let
sit overnight in a warm, dry place, feed!

18. How I mix sugar cakes/bricks

19. How I mix sugar cakes/bricks

20. How I mix sugar cakes/bricks

21. Tamp and pack heavily

22. Score to break up after drying

23. Quest for the perfect OW Nuc
“Success” still elusive
Losing too many nucs
How to increase survivorship
How do I streamline my work load and
time management?

24. “Cellaring”
 Devoted room or closet – nucs can be stacked
 Temperature constant at 40°
 Total darkness
 Air exchange, indirect ventilation
 Entrances left open
 Benefit: minimal honey consumption
 Stress-free living due to constant temperature

25. Insulated nuc box – 2” pink foam

29. Results
 Disaster!
 Possums and raccoons roll them over
 Possible revisions
--Build a plywood box to go around it
--Use the foam inside a Langstroth hive body

30. Back to reality
 I now overwinter regular hives
 Make my nucs in the spring with a reverse split

32. Innovative Beekeeping
gillard5@charter.net
www.Slideshare.net