If your mininucs are on the ground just pick them up and put them on something higher while you look through them
Lyson MiniPlus nucs arrived from Abelo. What sturdy pieces of kit they are. Eager to try them but snow on hills again and 2.5 degrees most of yesterday!! Ugh.
Prakel or others who use these, what volume of bees do you charge them with? Each side is considerably larger than an Apidea. Maybe I'll just do it proportionally by volume based on 250ml for Apideas?
Do you cut round holes in the top of pairs of frames for ease of adding queen cells drawn from Q rearing cups on plastic bases? Or have you another method for introducing the Q cells?
Last edited by Kate Atchley; 28-04-2015 at 08:21 AM.
I use roughly the same number of bees as I would for a kieler mini nuc for charging these(a touch more than for an apidea),if you look at the footprint of half a mini plus it is a smallish narrow area, it doesn't need too many bees to populate.
For introducing cells, I tend to sandwich them between two frames and slide the pair of frames back in, easier with drawn comb than foundation, your solution with a cut out from the top bars sounds as good as anything.
Good luck and enjoy.
It'll be interesting to hear what others are doing.
Personally, I'm not the kind of beekeeper that measures bees in ml...I know that I should be, but I'm not! After a couple of decades boning road bases and pipelines I have a natural confidence in my ability to visually assess quantities (old road builder saying: "get it wrong in the base it'll cost in the top"), it's for this reason that I found that shaking bees did the job just fine for me. The ideal is to shake them into a roof and then 'pour' the required quantity into the box but I can't tell you what that quantity is as I've never measured it...perhaps I should as this isn't the first time, on this forum, that I've been asked!
Of course, ideas change over the years and if I was starting mp boxes from scratch today I'd possibly stack a couple together and stock them with a small shaken swarm and take drawn combs and brood to start the others. Another method which I have used, a lot, in more recent years is to build standard nuc boxes approx 11 inch wide and then add boxes with the same footprint to take the mp frames on top. A strong nuc pulls the little frames very quickly. It's extra, 'special' kit but very useful and cost effective.
Adding the cells. When I run the Lysons as twin units I find (once the combs are drawn) the best way is to place the cell on the face of the comb and if need be to pin it in place with a small strip of the epoxy coated mesh which Thornes and the like sell; bent into a u-shape. This isn't a cell protector, just an extra surety against the cell being dislodged.
With new frames/foundation you'll obviously need to use the top bars as an anchor. When we first got our mp boxes they were issued with the old style wood/plastic frames which had relatively narrow top bars so maybe less of a problem than the new wooden frames which I believe are standard now.
Thanks mpc and Prakel. I like the idea of stacking them and having a small colony draw the comb ... will be onto that when I can. No swarms in sight but I have a smallish overwintered nuc colony which might do the job. Would also like to try the nuc method you mention Prakel. Presumably that could also be a way to reintroduce bees to larger units if mps are not going to go through the winter.Originally Posted by prakel
Meanwhile I'll drill those top bars in case I need to introduce Q cells with only foundation in the frames. They're wooden so that should be easy.
Last edited by Kate Atchley; 28-04-2015 at 09:55 AM.
They are, aren't they? Got my van-load of them yesterday
Watching this discussion with great interest. That charging of them with shaken bees and without an obvious means of support for the first Q cell before comb is drawn is a good point, but Kate has the solution.
You just need to knick off a smidgen (1-2mm) from each frame edge in the middle to get a white cup to sit between the top bars without falling to the floor. Here is one sitting down and the other unable to - without any cutting. That would be better than cutting a more central hole that will block as they build comb. I will probably just file it, standardising the location so that it still works when frames get swapped around between boxes. Or just do that to every frame?
Next question (in my mind): no cover or a polythene cover, as I believe mbc uses, folded back or cut short as necessary to permit access to the feeder? Maybe I'll try with and without.
Last edited by gavin; 28-04-2015 at 11:32 AM.
Yes, many benefits to those nuc length boxes.
Drawing comb.
Furnishing brood combs to either kick-start a unit with a cell or as a method of supporting mps where the queen has gone astray/not mated correctly.
Producing store combs.
As you say, returning the bees to full size frames.
We've also used exactly the same system with some much smaller units which one of my nephew's designed.
Do they arrive ready painted? What a result if so. Or is this an optional extra that I'm usually too mean to pay for and then regret when faced with a dazzling wall of white poly .... ?They are, aren't they? Got my van-load of them yesterday
They do indeed come painted. You can choose between sky blue, green or yellow - or a mix of the above (I mean a mix of single colours in a job lot of MiniNucs not some sort of yucky brown!). I was wondering whether the frames would come ready-wired but it seems not. I thought I saw a picture on the Lithuanian site that implied theirs might come wired and waxed, but that may have been wishful thinking. At least the holes are drilled to make wiring easier. I really ought to order wire but being active in a national and a local beekeeping association fair soaks up the time ...
G.
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