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?