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Senior Member
Mini nucs - the way i look at them is they are just for getting queens mated, end of story, once she starts to lay then she is removed into 5 frame nuc and a new Queen cell added to the mating box. Bees will abscond when the heat and or population gets to big, and of course dare I mention the alleged "mating swarm" . I use the EWK type nucs home made and dead simple to use.
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The Apidea's/mini nucs I use have a small queen excluder to put over the front once the queen is laying to prevent this absconding....but agree get the mated queens out as soon as you can.
Out of interest what are peoples success....or failure rates.... with Apideas?
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Senior Member
I have caught a few swarms from mini-nucs where the queen has already been clipped. Yes, I know I should have put an excluder over the entrance at the same time! However sometimes you don't get there in time after mating to put an excluder over and she's off literally before you know it!
Anecdotal evidence from me, in that I have never counted, is that mini-nucs are less reliable compared to larger nucs. Here are some reasons, you may have more:-
Colonies can get too big very easily.
Use up all the food.
Absconding.
Laying workers if the first queen or queencell fails. (With no brood present).
Too weak/small to defend wasps.
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