# mating nuc



## FordGuy (Jul 10, 2005)

is the purpose of a mating nuc to put a new queen in there with some nurse bees honey/ pollen, and give her opportunity to go on mating flight? what confused me were those styrofoam boxes with the nontradtional frame sizes specifically as mating nucs. Why not just use a regular nuc? doesnt make sense to come up with a whole new product to do something a nuc will do perfectly fine.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Yes the purpose of a mating nuc is to get virgin queens mated. That is their only purpose. The styrofoam boxes are used to cut down on the number of bees needed to get the job done. If you are a comercial queen breeder, you can have hundreds of nucs devoted to this job, which takes alot of resouces. The mating nucs are used instead to cut down on the amount of bees used for this purpose. Yes, you can use a nuc with standred frames, if your not raising a large number of queens.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

I recently purchased some of the 3 frame mini nucs from Mann Lake. Painted them. I stocked them with about 6 fluid oz of bees (1/2 a coke bottle) This was abour right. The feed was filled, cells placed and 2 weeks later I have mated queens the frame are drawn. I also stocked some with about a full can of orange juice concentrate. These have lots of bees, maybe too much. I let the virgins hatch in the dark befor placing in the mating yard. They are vented, so no problems with overheating.

In any event I really like the fact that they do not take up a lot of bees. They do not take up a lot of storage space. They also take little room in the bee yard. 10 can easily fit on a pallet. I highly recommend them. I plan to get more next year, a whole bunch more.

Jean-Marc


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>is the purpose of a mating nuc to put a new queen in there with some nurse bees honey/ pollen, and give her opportunity to go on mating flight?

Not necessarily honey/pollen, but bees and some kind of food.

>what confused me were those styrofoam boxes with the nontradtional frame sizes specifically as mating nucs. Why not just use a regular nuc? 

As they say, to use less resources. I compromised on two medium frames in my nucs. It makes it easy to stock them with comb and brood and bees and a frame of honey for feed, so I don't have to feed them.

>doesnt make sense to come up with a whole new product to do something a nuc will do perfectly fine. 

But a typical nuc is five deep frames. This is about ten times as much comb and bees as a mini mating nuc. It's about four times as much as one of my two frame medium nucs.


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

ford guy sezs:
what confused me were those styrofoam boxes with the nontradtional frame sizes specifically as mating nucs.

tecumseh replies:
there is really nothing nontradional about baby nuc frames fordguy. they are simply standard depth frames (I use illinois deeps) which have a bar (1 1/4" wide) in the center which provides a rabbit that allows you to stick twenty small frames in a standard box. a nice extra for me is these small frames also allow me to obtain a small quantity of comb honey.


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## Jon McFadden (Mar 26, 2005)

We made mating nucs this spring. I used extruded styrofoam sheet. The cost was $1 per nuc. I sized the frames so 3 of them would fit in a medium frame. I used a swarm to draw the frames out and accidentally got honey, pollen and eggs.
I'll post some drawings in a couple of weeks.


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

all sizes


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Velbert:

Nice pic's. Where did you get the styrofoam mini-nucs? Who makes them?

Jean-Marc


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

Hi jean 

I ordered them from beeworks out of canada they come from 
Germany I think------------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.beeworks.com
----------------------------------------
www.bivo.de mit online-shop auch in english


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

Also look at the Mini at
http://www.warnholz.de/English/Nicht_benannt/new_products_2003/S_B_K/s_b_k.html

For some reason the link is no longer working sorry.it was a few day ago

[ July 01, 2006, 02:16 PM: Message edited by: Velbert ]


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Velbert:

Thanks.

Jean-Marc


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

I went and got the measurments in the Mini Nuc's Out side measurments are 8 5/8" Wide by 6 3/4"Deep by 10 7/8" Long I do beleive they will stay stong enought to raise Queens all season I Put a 12oz cup of bees in them when I first stocked them. I have already split some in half to get some more started. I Going to try to see if I can winter several of them.


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

oops

[ May 29, 2006, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: Velbert ]


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## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

The nice thing about Michael's 2 frame mating nucs is they can be self sufficient for the whole season without feeding. The amount of bees don't eat too much, there is room for the queen to lay for the next cycle of needed bees, and the bees will forage for the next queen once she's gone and the brood gets capped. These nucs are small enough though that they will be required to be combined with a full sized colony in the winter in most locations except maybe the tropics or subtropics.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>These nucs are small enough though that they will be required to be combined with a full sized colony in the winter in most locations except maybe the tropics or subtropics.

I usually combine the nucs with the other nucs and end up with some hives or stronger nucs. It's nice having all the same size frames, even in your mating nucs.


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## Janice Lane (Feb 5, 2006)

Would it work to just put a division board in a 5 frame nuc to make a 2 or 3 frame mating nuc?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I have several that are five frame nucs with a division board in a dado and a canvas inner cover so each side can be opened seperately. Without the inner cover they spill over to the other side when you open. Without the Dado they always seem to find a way to the other side. It makes two, two frame nucs out of a five frame box. You can also divide an eight frame hive into three or a ten frame into four two frame nucs. With the ten frame it's a bit crowded if you use a 3/4" board for the divider. I would use a 1/4" luan divider for all (five, eight, or ten frame) of them.


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## Janice Lane (Feb 5, 2006)

What about having only one mating nuc per box...then I could just expand until they filled the 5 frame box, and I wouldn't have to worry about bees spilling over...right?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>What about having only one mating nuc per box...then I could just expand until they filled the 5 frame box, and I wouldn't have to worry about bees spilling over...right? 

The problem is that while a handful of bees can get a queen mated in a two frame box, they have difficulty in a box two and a half times that size (a five frame box). A five frame nuc works fine for a mating nuc if you have enough bees to occupy it. I have trouble coming up with enough bees for as many mating nucs as I need.


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

Janice

If I have a nuc that is only 2 frames i put into my 6 frame box itwill hold 5 frames + a 
divisin Board feeder (fr/with bees-Fr/with bees-Feeder) and as the colonie gets stronger i just slide the feeder over and insert 1 frame at a time until it fills the whole nuc box but you will have to stay on top of adding your frames or they will jump across feeder and start to build comb from the lid.always add new frame to the hive side not the feeder side usally the frame by the feeder is fat and will mess up the building of the added frame.and dont have the sideframe to far from the wall of the nuc it also will become extra fat.

[ May 30, 2006, 10:53 PM: Message edited by: Velbert ]


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>but you will have to stay on top of adding your frames or they will jump across feeder and start to build comb from the lid.

I would just keep frames over there and swap the feeder with the next frame as you go.


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