>You do not put nurse bees in with the sealed brood. If the temperature and humidity are correct, the brood will hatch normally.
>Please explain how much brood you are intending to incubate and why
Thank you Pete and Karen!
My interest in incubating sealed brood is based on:
a) speculation
b) climate here in Fairbanks does not provide enough time to get a 4 lb. package to medium-strong condition around the onset of the sustained nectar flow
c) the materials/equipment needed are now far more capable and surprisingly inexpensive
In terms of quantity, I'd start with the equipment to do 8 ea. 6 5/8" 10 frame supers, to hold 6 brood & 4 food frames each so a max of 48 6 1/4" frames of sealed brood at a time. It would be "rolling incubation" meaning every 3 or 4 days hatched out frames would be removed and more sealed brood added. This would continue until the colonies are strong.
I assumed the need for nurse bees because of all the assistance they've been observed providing. I recall reading about prompt dead pupae removal, uncapping and recapping cells (don't recall why), assisting emergence w/cap removal, and most importantly, feeding and assisting the "babies" during their initial 3 day growth period.
Speculation Light On:
1. If a brood-nest's limited capacity is relieved of the need to maintain sealed brood, then the available space would likely be rapidly filled w/ open brood. If incubated emerged bees are added, (when again removing sealed brood) colony buildup should be rapidly accelerated.
2. "Soft" miticides might be particularly effective in an incubator. Most mites would be newly phoretic and therefore perhaps more vulnerable. Product application limitations would likely be obviated. In other words, an additional IPM tool, partially breaking the brood cycle.
3. Late season incubation could provide timely mite control and increase the number of fat bees for overwintering.
Overwintering colonies around Fairbanks has never been accomplished to any practical extent. To my knowledge, no colony has ever survived winter outside. Sporadic attempts at Vaulting date back about 70 years. Recently, there's a lot of interest, myself included. I can't report any real success, But I've learned a Lot. The vaulting strategy includes "cleansing flights" and colony build-up beginning in March. So,
EITHER: The glass is half full !!
OR: P.T. Barnum was right…
If I could get some reasonable results from the vault AND incubate sealed brood, I might be able to make SPLITS! (I know, hope springs eternal…)
I sincerely appreciate any suggestions, advice, reality checks anyone here would offer!
Tnx!
rB
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