This week has been very hot, at least for the UK.  We had a max of 31ºC
(88ºF) with virtually no wind and high humidity – it was stifling.

 

Two mating nucs in the garden decided that enough was enough!  Neither had
queen cells, but they both swarmed.  A five frame nuc, that admittedly was a
bit overcrowded, lost its clipped queen somewhere in the long grass, and the
queen from a six frame polynuc with a mesh floor was later found under the
floor.

 

All this made me wonder how large-scale queen rearers cope in the US with
thousands of nucs out in full sun.  Do they keep the nucs very weak (if so,
how?) or do nucs regularly abscond?

 

Best wishes

 

Peter 

52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

 


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