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Boosting a weaker nuc

Leia's colony is not as strong as the other two, so I acted on a tip from my beek mentor. He suggested I place a frame of capped brood from one of the stronger nucs into the weaker nuc. The reasoning behind it is that the weaker bees will get a slew of new bees within a few days that will help in strengthening the colony. It is important however, that all the bees that are sitting on the frame be brushed off before the move. Otherwise, we would end up with a lot of dead bees.

I was a bit nervous to do this for two reasons. 1.) When you brush bees off a frame, they fly around in a cloud for a few minutes before they settle down and try to re-enter the hive. Since I generally do not work with a veil, I was worried some might get caught in my hair and sting me. 2.) I was afraid I might hurt the queen.

Well, no bees got caught in my hair, in fact most of the bees that I knocked off / brushed off fell immediately into the hive, while the others flew directly to the bee house window. The part that worries me still is that with the queen. I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked the frame before brushing and I didn't see her. Not seeing a queen doesnt really mean much, after all, one queen amongst ten thousand bees, is not easy to find. Finding her eggs is more important. I will vigorously search for eggs during my next inspection. If I find none, then I may have a problem.

Moving the frame into the weaker hive was less nerve-wracking. All I had to do, was remove a frame with almost no drawn out comb on the foundation and then place the brood frame somewhere in the middle of the brood nest. The frame with foundation, I simply placed in the other hive.

Hopefully, all is well. I guess we will find out on Tuesday!

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