From: "Charles B. Cromer" <[log in to unmask]>

> Hello,
>        Just was wondering if it is too late in the year to start up
another
> hive.  I am thinking it is, but have another hive ready to go and got that
> itch....  I am in Panama City FL



Charles,

I live in the Northeast (Vermont), and nucs aren't generally available until
May-June, which leaves a season around 4-5 months long.  If your last good
nectar flow is at least four or five months away, I'd think you'd be OK
starting a hive, especially with the mild winters in Florida.  If you start
with two frames of sealed brood/bees and a queen, you'll probably wind up
with a strong single story hive by winter, which should winter over in your
area (although you might need to feed early next spring).  A Carniolan queen
would seem a good choice -   they build VERY fast, and generally winter over
on less stores than Italians.  The SMR Carnies seem especially good, from my
limited experience.

I wouldn't hesitate to supplement with syrup to help them draw comb, since a
two or three frame nuc won't have a lot of foragers.  A couple of quarts of
syrup go a long way toward getting things going with a small nuc, especially
this late.  It might also be a good idea to take an additional frame of
drawn comb out of the donor hive for the nuc to provide more immediate space
for the new queen to lay.

One small word of caution - if you "steal" bees from a hive, you will be
trading honey for bees, resulting in somewhat less yields from that hive.  A
deep frame holds about 5600 larvae +/-, so at approx. 1,000 eggs/day max,
taking two full frames of brood would set the hive back about 11 days.

BTW - I think we all know and understand that "itch" :)

Good luck.

Regards,

Todd.

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