In this video Laurence Edwards provides a spring update on three overwintered nucleus colonies (nucs) that were created late in 2021 in North Wales. He explains his non‑intrusive inspection method—checking weight and observing cluster size without pulling frames—to assess colony status. All three nucs show significant growth: two have clusters approaching 50% of the box and the third about 40%, indicating active brood rearing and a healthy queen. He notes the importance of insulation (especially on poly nucs), points out minor condensation issues, and emphasizes that visible activity at the entrance does not guarantee brood. Laurence recommends only feeding fondant at this stage, avoiding pollen patties, and allowing the colonies to expand naturally during the rapid spring growth period from mid‑February to early April. He expresses confidence that the nucs will continue to develop and invites viewers to watch a previous April update showing nucs ready for customers.
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Today we're going to check out the overwintered nucs that we made late in 2021, see how they're getting on, see if they're building up, and just give you a general update on what they're looking like. So if you remember, we made these very late in the year, made them in September, which for me is a bit late up in North Wales. We did a little bit of an update showing how small the cluster sizes were, making sure they were never going below 25%. It's quite a warm day today, so I'm just checking them for weight. I'm just going to open them up, see what they're looking like, Not taken out any frames, but hopefully we'll see a little bit of expansion, which is always promising. So these are the 3 nucs that we're looking at here. As you can see, they're looking pretty active. Just because the bee's looking active from the front, it doesn't mean anything. If they're bringing in pollen, doesn't mean that they're rearing brood. Really, you can't tell that much from the entrance at this time of the year. All it means is that there are some bees in there. Doesn't mean anything about the status of the colony. And we're not gonna prove anything about the status of the colony today, 'cause I'm not gonna pull out frames. I'm not looking for eggs, larva, looking for the queen, doing any of that. All I'm doing, checking for weight, seeing what the bees are looking like. You'll notice I've got the insulation on there as well. Makes a big difference on the Payne's poly nucs putting that insulation on. Let's jump in though, see what the clusters are looking like. So this is the first colony here. As you can see, they're looking pretty active. They're looking really nice. Before they were covering between 25 to 30%. You can see though that they really are growing now. They're much, much closer to 50%. And I'd say without a shadow of a doubt, there'll be brood going on in some of these frames here. No condensation, and you can see not much activity down this end at all, but a really nice cluster of bees. Bees are looking very good, very active. I've given them a heft, don't need to do anything else apart from that because they're weighing really nicely. Good to see that the nucs are expanding into the new season. So next nuc along, a very, very similar story. Previously they were clustered up Under 25% or there or thereabouts. You look at them now and okay, they're not filling the box completely, but this is a very, very healthy nuc. This is what we want to see— good spring expansion, nice early spring expansion. And you'll be amazed at how quick a colony like this in a poly nuc in spring will expand to fill that box. One cycle of brood, so 3 weeks, and these could be box fillers. We're not going to do anything to them. They've got enough food. We're not going to feed them pollen patties or anything like that. They will expand as they need to expand, but I'm really happy with how quickly these bees are coming on in the spring. And then the final one, not quite as big this one, but still covering, I would say, 40%. And it's funny, when you take the roof off, you do get like a little bit of movement. They do cluster around. And as you can see, just over on the corners over there, little bit of condensation where that insulation's not working perfectly. In the middle, much better. On the corners, Just need to shift that insulation over a bit. But you can see that's a 40% cluster, really nice tight cluster as well. I always like to say if the bees have got purpose in what they're doing, you're generally okay 9 times out of 10. If they're just running around like lunatics, not really knowing what's going on, they're the ones that we find do have issues as you move into spring. So I'm confident with all 3 of these, we'll get these through, and it'll be interesting to follow their progress as we go through the season. So we've had a look at 3 nucs there. 2 of them exactly where I want them to be, one of them maybe a little bit behind. But if you look back at these videos now, which was a couple of months ago, you'll see the differences. The colonies have really come on quite a lot. The brood is expanding, which leads me to believe there is a queen in there and she is expanding the amount of bees by laying eggs, which turn into larvae, then brood, which is exactly what you expect to see in the spring. The last thing I'm going to do is start pulling frames out to confirm that. What is the point? You can't do anything. All you can do is sit on your hands, make sure they've got enough food in terms of fondant. That's all I'd be feeding them at this time of the year. And just enjoy the expansion that you're going to see over the next few weeks, because the middle of Feb to the 1st of April is rapid expansion season. If you want to see a video of what our nucs look like when they're coming into April, check out this update from last year which shows the April nucs ready to go out to customers.
