On 11/29/2011 8:34 AM, Peter L Borst wrote:
>
>   But there are at least two ways to accomplish this. One is to take brood and bees from your colonies over time to make as many splits as needed.
>
> Another is called "nuking the bees" where the bees are simply divided up as far as they will go.
>    
  I guess there is a third way Peter. Sort of like your way #2, but over 
two seasons.

As you know I Nuke non-productive colonies in mid-summer, and winter the 
resulting nucleus colonies. Rather than using those that survive the 
winter to re-stock dead-outs, re-queen weak colonies, or make increase, 
some are held back. They go through the first winter as 8 frame nucleus 
colonies...4 over 4 combs. In the spring, they are given an additional 4 
combs and become 3 story nucs, with each story holding 4 combs. These 
units are run as brood factories.

This past summer, I used 50 wintered nucleus colonies in this way. 
Beginning in early May, I harvested brood from each in rotation to stock 
my cell building colonies. Every 4 days I removed a total 7 of frames of 
sealed brood and 2 of honey for each cell builder...3 or 4 cell builders 
every 4 days. this brood was removed from several nucleus colonies, 
keeping each parent strong enough to be harvested again a couple weeks 
later, but below the swarming threshold. I probably stocked 35 cell 
builders from May 9 to June 15 approx. On the 16th of June I switched 
gears and began making new nucleus colonies for wintering in the 2011-12 
winter. I made 330 nucleus colonies from what was left of those 50 
original nucs. They are now in my wintering yards in a 4 over 4 
configuration.

If I had not used any brood for my cell building, I could have used it 
entirely for nuc making. I figure, counting the amount of brood used for 
cell building and nucs made...I could have made 500 nucleus colonies 
from the original 50 wintered nucs...or the 10 fold increase talked about.

If I figure 5 nucleus colonies made from each non-productive colony in 
the summer of 2010 became my 50 brood factories, that would be 10 
colonies total sacrificed that first summer. The resources of these 10 
colonies were expanded into 500 or...
50:1.

With less than 10% loss in the wintering 4 over 4 nucleus colonies, my 
apiary becomes sustainable over time...and eliminates the need for me to 
move south.

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