Combined Brood Nucleus
Arbeiten am Bienenstand
From several strong, healthy colonies, one predominantly capped brood comb is taken from each and combined with at least two food combs into a new colony.
From several strong, healthy colonies, one predominantly capped brood comb is taken from each and combined with at least two food combs into a new colony. Three to five source colonies are usual, each contributing about a palm-sized area of bees per comb face. This curbs the swarming urge in the production colonies and removes mites from them at the same time.
Up to 80 percent of the mites sit in capped brood; for each brood comb removed, the burden on the donor colony drops by about 10 percent. This only makes sense if the natural mite drop of the source colonies is low in May, as a guideline at most two mites a day. Heavily infested colonies produce damaged bees, and the result is disappointing.
It is set up at least three kilometers away. Nine days after forming it, the queen cells raised in the meantime are reduced to a single good one, otherwise this nucleus will swarm too. After about 25 to 30 days, it is checked for queenrightness; if the queen is laying and the colony is broodless, that is the best time for the varroa treatment. The old brood combs are then melted down.