Winter was good to my nucs, most made it through and look as if they are going to be strong producers. I plan to produce spring nucs with queens due the 2nd week of April. One pledge I made to myself for 2016 is to be ready for spring swarm management. Time will tell how that goes but to start spring 2016 right, I have all my nuc boxes ready except for those housing bees from last year.
Phone app weather was predicting a perfect “move nucs to full hives” day today. Technology for the bee yard! The day was scheduled.
The nucs had grown to 3 super x 5 frame configuration as I had added frames of honey in early February basically just adding a 3rd 5 frame super. I had to be fast, February was not a warn month. Today I loaded up way more stuff than I would need and head to the bees. My technique is to place the frames as they were in the nuc and centered between additional frames. The nucs were boiling with bees, had capped brood and larva in good quantity. It takes a bit of faith to add that much space, the nuc that is packed with bees becomes a hive that looks light.
One nuc was moved into 8 frame equipment. That one doesn’t look so light. It is all a matter of perspective.
My goal was to reclaim the nuc equipment in time to clean it up and make more nucs. I have 2 weeks.