Establishing a starter colony is achieved by creating a densely populated, queenless unit on the precise footprint of a strong parent hive. The process involves relocating the original queen and hive body while populating a new box on the original site with unsealed brood, food stores, and a surplus of young nurse bees to trigger an immediate queen-rearing impulse.
The effectiveness of a starter colony relies on artificially creating a "state of emergency" combined with resource abundance. By removing the queen and overcrowding the colony with nurse bees, you stimulate the maximum production of brood food required for grafted cells.
Configuring the Hive Components
Selecting the Source
You must begin with a strong, two-story colony. A weak parent hive cannot provide the density of nurse bees required to feed queen cells properly.
Isolating the Queen
Locate the queen and the comb she is currently on. Move the queen and her comb into a separate box to ensure the new starter unit is completely queenless.
Repositioning the Hives
Move the original two-story hive roughly 2 meters back from its original location. Place a new, empty box directly on the original site. This positioning ensures that returning field bees drift into the new starter box, increasing the population.
Populating the Starter Box
Arranging the Frames
In the new box on the original site, place four combs of unsealed brood covered with adhering bees. These should be placed in the center of the box.
Providing Resources
Flank the brood combs with combs of honey and pollen taken from the two-story hive. These resources must be immediately accessible to the nurse bees.
Creating Population Density
To ensure an overabundance of nurse bees, shake extra young bees from the original hive into the starter box. High population density is critical for temperature regulation and royal jelly production.
Supplemental Feeding
Install a sugar syrup feeder immediately. A continuous flow of syrup mimics a heavy nectar flow, encouraging wax production and heavy feeding of larvae.
Understanding the Trade-offs
Resource Depletion
This method extracts significant resources (brood, food, and bees) from the parent colony. The original colony will temporarily experience a drop in productivity while the starter is in operation.
Stress Management
The starter colony operates under a manufactured state of stress (queenlessness). While this maximizes cell acceptance, it is an unstable state that should only be maintained for the duration necessary to start the cells (usually 24 hours) before finishing them in a queen-right finisher or modifying the setup.
Making the Right Choice for Your Goal
This method is designed to maximize the acceptance rate of grafted larvae.
- If your primary focus is Cell Acceptance: Ensure you shake extra nurse bees into the box; overcrowding is the key factor that compels bees to accept and feed new queen cells.
- If your primary focus is Larval Nutrition: Verify that the sugar syrup feeder is full and that pollen combs are placed directly next to the brood; abundant food stimulates the glands that produce royal jelly.
The ultimate success of a starter colony depends on the ratio of nurse bees to open brood—more bees and fewer larvae yield better-fed queens.
Summary Table:
| Step | Action | Key Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Queen Isolation | Relocate queen & parent hive | Triggers emergency queen-rearing impulse |
| Repositioning | Place new box on original site | Collects returning field bees for high density |
| Resource Mix | Unsealed brood + honey/pollen | Provides immediate nutrition for royal jelly |
| Population | Shake extra nurse bees | Ensures heat regulation & maximum cell care |
| Feeding | Install sugar syrup feeder | Mimics nectar flow to stimulate wax & feeding |
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