In this introductory video of a new instructional series, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey outlines how to create nucleus colonies (nucs) that can survive the winter. He explains that the series will break down each step of overwintering nucs into short, ~5‑minute episodes, covering topics from making the split to feeding, varroa treatment, and winter preparation. The episode focuses on making a 2‑frame split in July (or as late as August) using a donor colony that is not heavily honey‑producing. Edwards selects one frame of emerging brood and one frame of stores (approximately 50% capped, 50% open) and fills the remaining space in the nuc box with foundation, noting the advantage of using drawn comb when available. He shakes a modest number of bees into the box, closes it, and transports the nuc to a different apiary to ensure the bees orient to the new location. He explains why moving to a separate apiary is beneficial and previews the next episode, which will add a mated queen and continue the overwintering process. The tone is instructional and enthusiastic, with practical tips and clear visual demonstrations.
Chapters
Welcome to a brand new series on making nucs to overwinter. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to a brand new series of making up nucleus colonies to overwinter.
The idea of this series is I'm going to break down all of the steps for making up nucleus colonies to take them through the winter into around 5-minute videos covering all the steps And then I'm going to show you the progress of those nucs as they go through the year. So we're starting off in July. You can start them off as late as August really if you're going to do it with a mated queen. I'll show you how they progress through the year and I'll show you what to do at each of the stages.
So the stages that we're going to cover are making up the nucleus, splitting the colony, adding the queen, transporting it to a new apiary, releasing the queen, feeding the colony, checking for Varroa treatments, feeding, and getting them ready for winter. Like I say, we're going to try and keep them to around 5 minutes each, and today is the first video, which is making the splits. So feedback I get all the time is I talk too much, so none of that anymore.
I'm gonna put a veil up, get my gloves on, and then go and make some splits.
So this is going to be my donor colony today. All I'm looking to do is make 2-frame splits.
It's the middle of July at the moment. A 2-frame split has got plenty of time to expand expand into a nice strong colony that's ready to overwinter. So when I say our 2-frame split, I'm going to take 1 frame of emerging brood, 1 frame of stores, and I'm just going to fill the rest of the box with foundation, and that is how I'm going to make my split.
So this is the donor colony, looks like a reasonable-sized colony here, but they're not going to do much in the way of honey production.
It's just too late in the year, the colony's not up to strength, so I'm going to pinch a good frame of brood from here, Frame of stores as well, and I'm going to shake out a few bees, and I'm going to use that to make up my split.
So this is the frame of stores that I'm going to use.
50% capped, 50% open means the bees have really good access to stores if they need it, and a little something for a rainy day as well. Get this one off with the bees, stick it in the nuc.
So this is the frame of brood that I'm going to use.
Nice little ring of pollen, nice ring of stores, and then lots of capped brood in the middle. You want to get it capped and and as emerging as you possibly can. And then I'm going to shake off some bees to make up my split.
So here's my 2-frame split, 1 frame of stores, 1 frame of brood.
I'm going to fill that out with foundation now and shake in some bees. Now I say fill it out with foundation, if you've got drawn comb, it makes the world of difference when you're making up nucs to overwinter. You just get such a big advantage over foundation because they don't need to go out to get the honey, to get the doors in order to draw out the foundation, which means that you're just a couple of weeks ahead. So if you've got drawn comb, get that in, makes it a lot better. So I'm going to shake some bees in now, close them up, take them to a new apiary.
So there we go, I've shaken in my bees.
I'm going to get the lid on, get them to the new apiary.
So there we go, it's as simple as that.
I've made up the nuc, I'm going to take it to a new apiary because I've got space at the other apiary And I find it just so much easier to move the splits like that. Means that every single bee that you've put in that box is going to orientate back to its new home in a different apiary. If you did it in the same apiary, you'd lose a lot of the bees. They just go back to this hive here.
So I'm going to get that nuc to a next apiary now, and then the next video in this series, I'm going to add a mated queen to that split. So that's it for the video. I'm going to break them down chunk by chunk. Hope you enjoyed that one. As always, please hit the subscribe button.
Please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time. Bye.
