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Thread: Position of Mating Nucs

  1. #1
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Default Position of Mating Nucs

    In the thread on 'absconding apideas' Gavin wrote:


    It didn't look to me that absconding was worse during the hotter spells but they probably did need a little sun to head off.

    What about height off the ground? Two I have a metre or so off the ground have stayed put despite a degree of overcrowding whereas their sister were off.
    This ties in nicely for me as I'm currently thinking about stands for mating nucs having been offered a superb mating apiary for next year -just ran out of time to get it stocked this year.

    In the past I've always preferred to place mating nucs directly on the ground. I'm pretty sure that I was told that ground based mating nucs give a higher success rate than those on high stands (as well as also suiting my preferred method of hive inspection). Of course, I can't actually remember who offered that tip to me so it may be a totally unfounded piece of advice. That said, it does work. However I'm hoping that my new site will be a long term project and as such I think that it could be a good opportunity to put in permanent pole stands to keep the boxes out of the grass.

    So question, do you have specific preferences with regards to siting mating nucs on the ground or on poles/stands etc? If you do is there a definate reason for your choice or is it simply something that you've adopted without too much consideration?

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    This is our set up.
    One major advantage of having the apideas raised up is that there is not so much stooping to do.

    It is also useful to have a table in full sun where you can carry apideas for inspections.

    apideas-minnowburn.jpg
    Last edited by Jon; 13-08-2012 at 10:14 PM.

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    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    I've got some on the ground and some on "conventional" hive stands. The former are a pain in the neck (and back and knees) to inspect. I've not noticed any difference in absconding frequency or mating success. I've always liked the idea of the sort of post setup that Jon shows but have yet to get round to do anything about it. I do always place them in pairs with the entrances facing opposing directions. I then use the roof of the closed box to place the roof, cover screen and inverted frames of the mini-nuc being inspected. My best queens seem to come from boxes in the bottom of the hedge in my back garden ... since these cause the most creaking joints to inspect perhaps they are ignored a little more and just allowed to get on with things? Or perhaps there are a better class of drone here than on the local farmland

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    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    That Minnowburn apiary has the look of a science fiction set about it, where strange creatures with post-box mouths pop up out of the ground when you least expect it.

    Never one to shy away from copying a good idea when I see it (and this one was in the Fife association apiary) we cut lengths of that decking with the grooved face and screwed them onto posts. This was last year. The Fife guys screwed in hooks to the underside so that they could loop over some spare bicycle inner tubing, but I never got that far, instead using thick rubber bands that come with the mail into our building and which, it seems, blue tits or great spotted woodpeckers (the apiary has both) or something delight in pecking at until they snap. They have to get their kicks somehow. The height was pleasing, but the attachment of the little platforms to the post (one screw vertically down into the post) was insubstantial and winter removed the platforms.

    This year I took the path of least resistance and placed them on an unused slab. Delighted to have that little absconding theory (based on a sample of two off the ground) thoroughly bedunked. That's what the forum is for.

    I suspect that we need to keep at the grafting lark for a few years. In a small number of them (years) we'll all have selected for stocks that behave well in Apideas.
    Last edited by gavin; 13-08-2012 at 08:49 PM.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Apideas are best left alone for 2 weeks after the virgin emerges apart from checking if there is food in the compartment.
    Too much tinkering leads to lost queens.
    I left 30 apideas behind when I went abroad for 3 weeks in July and I had 25 mated queens when I came back.
    I noticed in our queen rearing group that some of the keenest guys who check their apideas about 4 times per week have no mated queens yet. Sometimes less is more.

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    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Some interesting thoughts so far (Jon, thanks for the photo of your set up). The recurring issue of avoiding kneeling/bending isn't really a problem for myself as I actually prefer to do most of my beekeeping on my knees! I suppose that when my knees do finally pack in I'll have to build one of those quaint little stools which have a drawer full of bee 'bits and pieces' underneath....

    It's actually going against my normal operating mode to consider raising the mating nucs to a position where I can stand and work them but as this new apiary will only need (hopefully) to be set up once I think that it deserves some serious consideration from myself -and if I can tap into the views of others regarding possible differences between ground based and high rise nucs at the same time, all the better.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    What I try and do this year is carry them to a table or even the top of a hive so I can work them at a comfortable height.
    if you have to keep stooping or working bent over you will get a back problem sooner rather than later.
    A guy in our group made all the stands and it has been a real improvement.
    You can't really see clearly from the photo but there is a little batten nailed on to the edge of each stand which allows the apidea to be held tight between the batten and the central post so no need for inner tubes or rubber bands.

    Edit.
    Actually you can see the batten reasonably clearly, the little white strip at the edge of the first stand.

  8. #8

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    I attended Terry Claire's queen rearing course at Newport this year and he makes "tables" for his, ( 2 apideas per table) all at waist height.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Terry has been at our place at Minnowburn but it was a couple of years ago when we were just starting up.

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    I have fixed a flat square of ply onto the top of some of my fence posts on which I can stand 4 mini-nucs.

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