# First nucs, day 5, how do they look?



## Maxpowers (Apr 4, 2012)

Got my first bees setup. Went with two packages of nucs. Not sure how many I should see in each box initially. The one didn't seem like it had too many, the other one had a ton. 

Here's how the hives look after 5 days. In the hive with the crazy amount they are starting to build comb on the inner cover, does that mean anything?

Here's the hive with not so many.










Here's the hive with a lot.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Look normal for bees on plastic. Time to add the second deep if they have comb on all that foundation. Also scrap that burr comb off the top bars and intercover.

 Al


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## Maxpowers (Apr 4, 2012)

That's the 5 plastic frames that came in the nuc. They don't seem to have touched the 5 empty frames that I added on initial setup yet. This means I still stick with one box for now right?

When I scrape that comb do I remove it from the hive?


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## spiritrider (Nov 14, 2009)

I would turn the cover over to make less space above the frames.

If the bees have only honey and pollen, no brood, on an outer frame, I'd move an empty frame in one space, unless they've already started building comb on it.


Just my opinion.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Ya scrape the burr comb of and remove it from the hive. Melt it down and use it on sticky drawers and other things.

Is the rest of the foundation plastic too?

 Al


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## Maxpowers (Apr 4, 2012)

They went right back to it after I scraped it out last week. Here's a picture from today after I scraped it out again. 

The new frames are wooden frames.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yes those are wooden frames, but what is the foundation? Real wax or that plastic insert stuff?

This is what Some should look like in 5 days.










Not all the cells are perfect either.










Put some of the wood frames between every other plastic frame.
Keep feeding syrup as long as they are taking it.

 Al


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## Maxpowers (Apr 4, 2012)

I'm pretty sure these are wax


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Looks like plastic insert to me. No support wires running horizontal or vertical. See if you can put a finger nail thru it in one of the corners. If not it's plastic and you will need to paint it with bees wax to get them to hurry up and draw the stuff out.

 Al


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## Maxpowers (Apr 4, 2012)

They seem to be "plasticell".


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Bees say YUK PLASTIC. I say paint the stuff with melted bees wax and hope for the best.

 Al


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## johng (Feb 14, 2009)

They will draw the plastic just fine on a honey flow or when feeding. Painting on some extra wax does help them get started. You have the foundation in upside down though. See the perforated spot in the corner? Those are there so you can break them out to leave the bottom corners open so the bees can cross back and forth. You don't have to break them out but, I normally do.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Good pictures and schooling. Got my heart rate up. Hope I can go there someday.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yes bees will draw the plastic out but it takes for ever and if there is real wax in there they may avoid drawing it out altogether. That is how come they can still sell that stuff is the bees will over some time get around to drawing the stuff.
I had that stuff in 2004 when Kare won the bee hive raffle. 75 days and it wasn't but half drawn out.
In 30 days they had 20 frames of real wax foundation drawn out once I got rid of that plastic.

 Al


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## Maxpowers (Apr 4, 2012)

I haven't done the wax yet, it's on my to do list. When I first started this post I tried just adding the second box on top. Here's how they looked today. Not the best pics but they're via my cellphone while wearing a bee suit and gloves. 

This is a frame pulled out that's roughly in the middle and then me pointing the phone down into the space that created.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Way to go team! Work that wax!


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## Maxpowers (Apr 4, 2012)

I have more questions about their progress. Hive 1 which has always had a ton of bees is doing fine, that's the one I already added a 2nd box onto. My only question there is, I lifted up the 2nd box today to peek at the progress between them. It took a little bit of wiggling to get them unstuck. Is it okay to separate the two boxes to look since I'm breaking some of their work?










I'm more concerned about hive 2. While they seem to be healthy and doing fine they don't seem to be progressing much. I don't see the population growing or the comb expanding. I took a peek today, now I am new and may not know what I'm looking for but I'm not sure there's any drones or a queen. Everybody looked the same size. Here's a couple pics of them. Notice the brown thing, it's one of those supplement food things. Hive 1 destroyed theirs a couple months ago, it's still lingering on in hive 2.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

They are building burr comb everywhere because they hate plastic. Pop the plastic foundation out and figure out a way to re-purpose it. If you figure out something to do with it let me know as I have a lot of students with piles of the stuff I removed from their hives. Place an empty frame between 2 of the plastic frames you got with your nuc. Proceed checkerboard style...every other one all the way across the hive. Only use for the plastic is to keep it in every other frame in the upper super so that they will draw out the empty frames straight. Some folks run wire back and forth to strengthen the comb that the bees will draw.

Use foundationless or real wax. Wish they'd quit selling the plastic stuff.


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