# closing up mating nucs



## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

what mini mating nuc do you have i over winter my ones that are from bee works


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

At the end of the year I convert my mating nucs to regular nucs and try to build them up into two 5-frame nuc supers. Many get robbed out if they're not strong enough. Those that do best, seem to be those with a small 3/8" diameter hole in the upper, front of each super, as their only entrances - with screened bottoms.

If conditions continue to be appropriate for queen rearing, I use the 5-frame nucs as mating nucs, it is difficult to keep the smaller 3-frame mating nucs from being robbed out.


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

OK thanks my 2 frame and 5 frame nucs are fine, but the problem is my mini nucs, homemade, yes they are getting robbed out and not sure how to save the brood. Probalby need to build something to hold the miniframes in a full size hive.


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## Ben Franklin (May 3, 2011)

Can't you let the brood emerge then shake the bees to another nuc or hive to strengthen it?


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

If I remember correctly Dr. Russell said that they over winter 3 frame mediums with half sized frames. 

Not to hijack this thread, but how long is the top bar on a half size frame? Thinking about trying some next spring.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

For half length frames...
standard super in whatever depth the frames are, with a frame rest in the center...









This pic shows the same thing, but with a full division board in the center for overwintering 2, 10 frame nucs on full sized hives...









A woodbound metal excluder with aluminum screen on both sides of it is placed between the hive and the double nuc that is being overwintered... (I do not use this method much, as I prefer to just place the frames directly back on the hives, but it does work)..









Mini frame super (marked with the black stripe) on a full size hive... the position that you place it will effect what will be in it in spring... lower for brood, higher for food...


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Some of our minis (half length frames, 3 per hole in duplexes) will over winter just fine... Using the mini frame supers as shown above is a way to have capped honey, brood and pollen, and nurse bees already on the frames as you stock the nucs in spring... it also gives you an easy way to draw the comb on new frames without over working the bees in the mini nucs...

In some cases, we use the mini frame supers to start new hives... these four are true bottomless hives made of nothing but mini frames... they can be used to stock nucs again in spring, or to provide resources to nucs (brood, bees, food) as they are needed throughout the season... two of the four in the pic are actually two colonies in each hive by means of full division boards in each of the supers... so for those there are 10 frames in each super, 4 supers high...


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## valleyman (Nov 24, 2009)

Hope I'm not too far off topic. but has anyone tried the Shamrock plastic devided nuc boxes?


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

I have not tried them... but I have used fourway minis in deep supers... I did not care for them though for a few reasons... the first being that each one had to be spaced out so far and if robbers went after one hole, the rest would soon follow... but the main reasons that I do not use the plastic fourway are the price and the plastic frames... it takes some serious coaxing to get bees to draw plastic and getting an early start means giving them an easy start... aside from that, I would be worried about the plastic boxes warping in the southern sun... we have tried plastic hive bodies, tops, and bottoms, and they all warped...

Ps... good to see you back!


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

David LaFerney said:


> how long is the top bar on a half size frame? Thinking about trying some next spring.


9 3/8"


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

I use mini-frames in my mating nucs. The boxes are 4 way, divided in half the short way and then further divided in half with a movable feeder. On the last round of queens, I catch one queen on one side of the feeder, move it to a side wall, and winter the nuc with the remaining queen on 8 mini-combs. In the spring, I add brood comb above and below the mating nuc box...isolating each nuc to their own new brood box with folded grain bags, so the nucs move into the brood comb and populate it...and I take the wintered queen off with a nuc when I have cells ready at the end of May.


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## brac (Sep 30, 2009)

Michael, are you making or buying the feeders for these?


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Making


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

Awesome pics thanks guys


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