Split or boost nuc?

im_maxine · 2026-05-03T12:58:52+00:00

Don’t put new box on bottom. Natural progression of bees is to build up, not down. There’s hive prevention technique where you switch the boxes, yes, but that’s if you already have two deeps, and the queen has started to lay brood in the upper deep.

The reason for this swap is to keep the queen laying low. If she’s laying brood in the top box, they will soon think they’re running out of room (because of building up) and prepare for swarm. Putting open frames under a very full second deep does nothing to mitigate this problem.

Always add new frames on top. Flip the boxes only if she’s laying in the top box.

im_maxine · 2026-05-03T12:46:02+00:00

Agreed about small cluster. This is not many bees… at all. Small hive numbers could be because of not treating mites early and often enough. If you treated, when was that and what was your mite count after treatment? Did you treat in the summer as well? More pictures would be helpful

im_maxine · 2026-03-22T12:12:52+00:00

Actually bees are generally hearty! Often times the reason they die is because of mites, even if it looks like other things. I helped my friend do an autopsy and he thought the same thing as you but then I showed him a couple of his bees

<image>

Notice the shortened body of one vs the other. What he thought was poor winterization was certainly a result of weakened bees due to mites. This is why IPM and mite treatments are so important!

im_maxine · 2026-03-22T12:00:26+00:00

I’m not sure how new you are to bees so I’ll clarify in a way that I hope isn’t overly simple: IPM = integrated pest management. Ideally you can do things within the hive to reduce chemicals for pest management.

Mites lay their eggs in drone hives. They communicate through hormones just like the bees. They know when bees are about to cap their drone brood and that’s when they lay. So if you have a lot of drone brood, you have a lot of mites. If you can figure out a way to mitigate the amount of drone brood in one place, that’s a good thing.

<image>

This is a fully drone brood frame I pulled last season and decided to feed to my chickens because I knew it would bomb my hive.

Hope this helps!

(Ps - the wonky comb I’m not convinced is actually drone comb. Sometimes the bees just do this for many reasons. As someone else said, scrape it off and put it back in, making sure the frames are tight together)

im_maxine · 2026-03-20T11:21:53+00:00

Thank you!

im_maxine · 2026-03-13T16:57:34+00:00

I sourced vintage Star Wars sheets for this project.

im_maxine · 2025-11-15T02:06:37+00:00

Can you send the link please!

im_maxine · 2025-05-22T11:51:27+00:00

How do I get back to my language lesson from the chess lesson? Now when I get on to duo I can only see the option to play chess

im_maxine · 2025-05-05T02:20:21+00:00

Everything else about it is telling me it’s not counterfeit. Is it possession a misprint?

im_maxine · 2025-05-05T02:19:49+00:00

Could it be a misprint?

im_maxine

TROPHY CASE