anyone had luck with medium sized nucs?

FordGuy · July 12, 2005, 10:25:35 AM

thinking about making some nucs that would hold medium frames....is this feasible for the bees? would 5 frame mediums do?

Robo · July 12, 2005, 11:55:05 AM

Well MB is the expert. I know he was away, so don't know when he'll get caught up, but if you check his website he has a bunch of different size medium nucs (as small as 2 frames).

Here is a nice picture from his site showing the variations.

Finsky · July 12, 2005, 11:59:54 AM

Quote from: FordGuythinking about making some nucs that would hold medium frames....is this feasible for the bees? would 5 frame mediums do?

It depends what you do with them. I just made 10 medium frame mating nucs for queens. I put there one frame bees and two foundations.

5 medium frame is same as 3 langstroth. It is slow start. It depens where you live and do you have winter.

Another difficulty is that little nuc is soon full of honey and brood. But when those 5 frames are full, you take honeyframes of and give them to bigger hive and you take from bigger hive a frame of emerging bees. You have soon full box of bees and nuc are qite normal hive soon.

Barnabus · July 12, 2005, 12:19:20 PM

Hi:
Sorry I don't have any advise on the medium nucs but I do have a question for Finsky.

Finsky:
What do you mean by nuc for mating queens. Do you actually mate queens in that nuc if so please explain how you do that. By doing that you can maintain your genectic strain of bees if you could get the right drones couldn't you?
Thanks Gerald

Robo · July 12, 2005, 12:40:15 PM

Gerald;

A mating nuc is just used as a mini colony to support a queen until she mates and starts laying.

When queen rearing, you have a cell builder that makes the queens cells. Since queens will kill each other (yes there are instances of co-existing queens, but rare) you can only have one queen per colony. So what do you do with the 20 queen cells from a cell builder? You make mini colonies and put one cell in each. These mini colonies will support the queen when she emerges and in the interim of mating. Once a queen starts laying, you can replace her with another queen cell or dismantle the mating nuc.

Some mating nucs can be quite small. Like this one that has 3 frames (4"x4" ) and holds about a cup of bees.

click image for other views

Finsky · July 12, 2005, 01:00:37 PM

Quote from: RoboGerald;

Some mating nucs can be quite small. Like this one that has 3 frames (4"x4" ) and holds about a cup of bees.

click image for other views

Next I gonna make that size. I have feral colony in the wall of old dairy mill 4 miles from me. I have followed that colony 7- 8 years. How it has survived all the time with varroa and other deseases. It is a mystery.

I make some bird cottage like nucs and put them in trees. NObody knows what they are. So I mate queen with those feral drones.

Those little boxes is easy to make from polyuretane board but it takes time to put them together. Pieces can be clued together with polyuretane foam. You spray water to surface, because water harden the foam. Then put foam and rub bubbles away. Them parts together with nail screw.

Ants love polyuretane board. Surface must be painted. ...hours go...

Robo · July 12, 2005, 01:59:14 PM

Quote from: FinskyAnts love polyuretane board. Surface must be painted. ...hours go...

Ah, interesting. I lined my solar wax melter with it, and an ant colony moved in and chewed it all up and made a mess. I figured it was becuase of the honey, but now that I think about it, for years I never had any ant problems. It wasn't until I added the insulation :shock:

Michael Bush · July 12, 2005, 04:26:11 PM

Well, since the pictures of mine are already shown, I'll just elaborate from there. :)

First, Brushy Mt. sells five frame medium nucs. You can buy just the box or you can buy them with bottoms, inner covers, and telescopic covers. I prefer a simple migratory cover on a nuc. It's cheaper and there are less parts to mess with. I buy a lot of them. I also make my own when I want other sizes.

The variety of sizes is because I try to match the size of the nuc to the number of bees. I try to keep the density of the bees high when they are that small. It allows them to defend themselves and to manage the space they are in.

I use the two frames the most. I use them for mating nucs. I put in a frame of open brood and a frame of honey.

I use them when I find a capped queen cell. I'll put a frame of honey and a frame with a capped queen cell in and maybe shake in a few more bees and let them raise the queen.

I use them when I want to keep a queen for a spare when requeening. I just put a frame of brood with the queen on it and a frame of honey in the nuc.

I have even tried putting queen cells (from a Jenter box) in a CROWDED two frame nuc to see how good of a queen they would raise. If they are crowded and have a frame of pollen/honey and a frame of brood they have done a good job and made six or seven good queens. It's very important that they have plenty of pollen and plenty of young bees for this.

The three and four frame nucs are mostly for use when the two frame nucs outgrow their quarters.

The five frame medium nucs are what I install packages in. The bees really take off in that small space in April in my climate. But in April it still freezes at night here.

The eights and tens are mostly for catching swarms or putting bees in when they overflow the five frame nucs.

You can argue that a ten frame isn't a nuc, but then ten frames of mediums is about the same as six or seven frames of deeps and if I have a bottom attached, I call it a ten frame nuc. When they outgrow it, I put them on my regular (unattached and screened) bottom boards instead of the attached solid one.