What is a Nuc?
“Nuc” is short for “nucleus.” You now have all the essential parts of a beehive. For your nuc to grow to a full hive, it needs to be properly cared for. The queen just started laying around April 2nd. The bees will soon seal the brood. You will probably see the total number of bees slowly shrinking until April 23rd. At that point the eggs that the new queen laid will start hatching and the hive will begin to grow. Below are the essential needs of a happy, healthy hive.
Space:
Bees keep their brood around 93°. If there is too much space in the hive, the bees struggle to hold the temperature. You’re the space manager. Transfer your new 5 frame nuc into the center of an 8 or 10 frame box with a lid and bottom. Keep all original frames together. The bees will move onto the remaining frames as the hive grows.
Feed:
The nucleus will grow much quicker if they are given Sugar Syrup. There are only so many bees in the hive, and it can be difficult for them to tend to the new baby brood nest and continue foraging. If you bring in “groceries” by providing some Sugar Syrup, they can spend more time keeping the brood nest warm. This will allow the queen to lay even more eggs in a larger area, which equals more bees sooner! The Sugar Syrup will also help them draw out foundation frames more quickly.
To make Sugar Syrup:
Mix equal parts sugar and water.
½-1 gallon per week of Sugar Syrup is enough.
They may stop taking it up once the honey flow picks up.
You can thicken the syrup later in the fall if you are trying to help the bees put on weight for winter.
Boxes:
Once the bees have moved onto the last frame of the bottom box, it would be appropriate to add a second box. Once again, if you are giving them bare foundation frames, it will help them immensely if you provide Sugar Syrup to help them draw out the comb.
The goal is to have your hive filling 2 boxes before winter. If they grow out of the 2nd box, then you can add a third. This 3rd box is where all the honey you may harvest will be collected. If you add a third box, don’t feed syrup as that would taint the honey (it wouldn’t be Pure Honey, it would be “funny honey”).
Mite treatments:
The nucs have been treated before pickup. They should stay ahead of the mites until August. You must remove the honey that is for human consumption before a
mite treatment is applied. The target date for a mite treatment is August 10th. It takes 21 days for an egg to become a bee. After August 10th, the eggs that are laid are your winter bees. They need to be mite free to survive. If you are in an area that has mint or another late season crop, August 10th may become tricky. After you remove your honey for human consumption, if you see that the bees are still bringing in lots of nectar and are getting honey bound, then you can swap out honey filled frames for new frames, keeping the bees to 2 boxes. Save your honey frames, you can put them back into the hive in October to assure that they have enough food to get through winter.
It's not a bad idea to do an additional “cleanup treatment” in October, it helps assure the bees are clean and mite-free going into winter.
Treatment options: Apivar, Hopguard, Formic, Oxalic