Today, on day 6 (larval age), the small nurse hives have a hard time defending their hives from robbers. I have of course some strong hives in the yard that appear to be looking for an easy meal. I have severely reduced the entrance of the green nuc, so that really only 2 bees fit in the opening. The pink queen castle seems to have more bees and I left an opening there of about a half inch. Both hives are bringing in fresh pollen, the green one less that the castle, but still. That is reassuring. I will hold off on the feeding, as I cannot image that they will actually eat all that syrup. For the nucs that we will set up for the new Q3 cell, there cannot be too few bees per hive and the openings have to be really, really small. Pencil size. Can someone make some reduces for the nucs? I will be going to Mr. Amish again next week. Let me know if you need something.
Kristien.
Two things:
1. Should we reduce the entrance on the medium nuc just for safety sake?
2. What are the dimensions of the reducer you need? If you’re just talking about a stick shorter than the width of the nuc then I may have some very old frames I can repurpose. That what’s blocking the entrance on the medium nuc.