BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS
Mini mini foam nucs
TheHoneyPump:
A deal fell into my lap so I picked up about 10 of these foam mini nuc things to experiment. Yesterday I cut a bunch of waxed plastic foundation frames to size to fit in them.
Question; with no comb and no brood or resources. What would be your trick to keep the bees stuck to the box? I heard these can have a problem with the bees and VQs absconding until the combs are established. Id rather not waste ripe cells on them if they are just going to take off. If you have actual experience with these and the abscond issue, Id love to hear your thoughts and tips.
I will post some picts of what I actually got later. In the meantime this webgrab is representative. Some of them came double deckers with queen excluders to. Neat.
Ben Framed:
I have not used these but I did watch a video by Joe May which does. Actually he was showing how he loads these with bees and a queen cell.
What he does is attaches 6 of these small frames into a regular empty deep frame and places these into a regular deep box and the bees draw them out for him. I will gladly post the video if you are interested.
TheHoneyPump:
Since posting the question, I have found this which is well done and quite comprehensive on the subject. Not specific to these boxes, but the concepts should be applicable.
http://michiganbees.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Mini-Nucs_20150130.pdf
To get some brood scent in I have opted to smear chunks of nice fat and juicy drone brood inside of each box and along a foundation frame in each. That will hold them for sure. Yum,Yum,Yum.
Bob Wilson:
HP. I saw a University of Guelph video where the research center show how they put a cut off piece of a pheromone tab in the mini nuc. He explains their process. They guy makes good videos.
https://youtu.be/rL3HRd1n53g
FloridaGardener:
Okay...cool video. But I thought beeks shouldn't knock frames so hard because it can hurt the larvae. Gentle taps only to drop bees only.
These guys are working on educational grants so they maybe they don't care and can just build up again if "thousands of larvae were harmed in the making of this movie"....?
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