# Mini mating nucs or standard equipment?



## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Just finished filling the last four hundred of our 4500 mini's at midnight last night. I like them as we have a great system to handle them. Bees do well in them in my area. My only complaint is that my wish to acquire additional inventory is outweighed by the outrageous price ML is now charging for them. We bought the first batch at less than $7. To see a 15-20 dollar price tag on a $2 piece of foam is outrageous.


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## kramerbryan (Oct 30, 2013)

I like to keep all my frames interchangeable. I use 3 frame deep mating nucs that I make from 1x6 fence boards. It is also very easy to use a 10 frame deep split up into 4 compartments with different entrances.


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

Brad - I would say that it all depends upon what your ultimate goal is. Using full frames spreads out the brood on the frames, so it takes a bit more bees to keep temps correctly. Whereas with a standard half frame you put 3 or 4 into a space and the bees can cluster across them easier keeping things up to temp. Here where i'm at and north of here that is important as nightly temps can fall into lower 30's during spring. 

Down in your area it may not be much of a concern so the full frame may be best. Some like Michael Bush uses full frames even though he's in the north. 

If you want earlier queens, set up a few standard equipment mating nuc's and see how it goes. If you don't like how they work, set up your half sized frames and dump a swarm on them and feed to get them to pull them out. 

I bought two , 3# packages a few days ago to get my half sized frames drawn and gave them extra wax on the ritecell to help motivate them. So far they are like machines.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

Thanks for the replies. I think I'm going to try using a deep hive body made into 3 chambers. Our night temps can still get into the 30's but it's still too early to make queens. In another couple weeks we will be past our frost danger so they should be okay I think. Honey-4-All, the sticker shock got me as well. The prices for the small parts is as much as it is for the standard sized stuff. Crazy They've also gone way up on their nuc prices, or at least I think they have. I normally make all my woodenware but I did fill an order last year with 2 nuc boxes and I think they were about $10. Now they're $14. I need some nuc boxes and don't have time to build them so I'm going to buy some of the overpriced things.....


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## MTN-Bees (Jan 27, 2014)

I'm using both the ML Double Mini Mating Nucs and then using the wooden Growing Boxes for overwintering. I also have 3 way mating Nucs with removable dividers. There is one slot that divides the 3 ways into double Nucs. For overwintering I add two 4 frame nuc boxes to the divided double deep.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

So which works better?


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## MTN-Bees (Jan 27, 2014)

This will be my 1st year using the ML mating Nucs. I still like using standard deep frames for the ease of being able to move frames throughout the apiary. I really like the 3/2 way mating nuc. That design allows good overwintering as double Nucs.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

Ok, thanks. If you aren't having any problems with full length frames as mating nucs in CO, I surely don't think I will have any problems in AL.


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## MTN-Bees (Jan 27, 2014)

Another design to consider is the 4 way mating nuc that Michael Palmer uses. I really like the design and its overwintering capability. I'm also building bottom boards and lids for the 4 frame single nuc boxes so they can be used for mating Nucs. I'm no expert in this area. There are many others that have been doing this for a long time.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I've seen that 4 way system and it's a great idea, but that puts me back to using the small frames, IIRC? I love the concept of the small frames but I think for now I'm going to stick with full sized frames because having to use small ones will set me back a month or so waiting on them to get drawn out. It won't take a month for them to get drawn but by the time I get them, then put them on a hive or two and feed them to stimulate wax production, it will me late April, I think.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I can set up mating nucs very quickly and reliably with a frame of brood and a frame of honey and a shake of bees if I use standard frames. Mine are all mediums, so my standard mating nuc is two medium frames.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm#matingnucs


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

With the Manlake double mating nucs...with the little frames can you put the frames in the growing box over a strong regular nuc to draw them out? I am correct in presuming when you put a virgin or queen cell in the mating nuc it must be drawn first?


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

WBVC said:


> With the Manlake double mating nucs...with the little frames can you put the frames in the growing box over a strong regular nuc to draw them out? I am correct in presuming when you put a virgin or queen cell in the mating nuc it must be drawn first?


Janne - I took my prompts from Lauri on getting them drawn, however there's always more than one way to skin a cat. lol.. 

If the NUC is strong and in build up mode, they should draw them out ok for you. They do need to be drawn out with brood/bees in them before placing queen cells. It gives the nurse bees in the hive something to hold them there while waiting on the queen to come into power. 

If you have extra beeswax sitting around the house, put a heavy coat on the foundations if using ritecell. The bees will draw that wax out in no time flat.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

This same question has popped up a lot since I first joined Beesource. One thing has become certain. Mating nucs tend to succeed much better with at least 3 frames. 

Another thing gets into a grey area that probably has a bit to do with skill and attention to detail, and that is, "How many bees to add?"

I've tried the baby nuc's, and had only limited success. The extra equipment is stored for about 10 months a year, and the comb needs to be drawn at the correct time. I didn't like either of these aspects. The other problem was so many mating colonies swarming off. A whole lot of effort wasted on my part.

Medium boxes have a lot of benefits, with the main drawback being that to use 3 boxes to equal 2 deeps, you have to buy or make 1 more box and 10 more frames. I enjoy the woodwork, so it's not a big deal to me.

Most of my boxes are now 10-frame, 6 5/8" deep "Medium Illinois supers", whether used for brood or honey. I use the 3 vertical slots in the insides of the 16 1/4" short ends for hive partition boards. I build double screen boards with 3 slots on the bottom for the partitions. I make both 1/2 wide and 1/3 wide inner covers for 2 x 5-frame and 3 x 3-frame arrangements. Worked great this last winter. Now all I need is more bees and a big, old flatbed truck.


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## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

I use all 5 frame medium nucs. Completely interchangeable and the queen can lay for a period of time before shipping and you can even keep her for a few weeks if you don't need her right away. I start them off with 2 or 3 frames and they typically build up though the season to the point that they supply brood for additional nucs or the cell builder. With a long enough cycle they tend to be self sustaining once you get started. Of course in Ohio we don't dry up in the summer so our queen rearing season is very long compared to some in the south. At the end of the season I combine some and overwinter others.

I've tried but dont' like the mini mating nucs because you can't leave the queen in them for any length of time and it's harder to evaluating the laying pattern due to the small area. I find them harder to populate and balance the population to keep them going for very long. The larger mini nucs that accept half frames seem much better though I haven't tried them.

-Tim


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

Thanks for all the replies!


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