New Generation Beekeeping Nucleus hives

Nucleus hives (Nucs) a description

The new colony could be a small swarm but is more likely to be created by the beekeeper taking some frames containing eggs, larvae and capped brood. These National frames will most likely be from a very strong colony and will become the nucleus of a new colony which will expand into all 5 frames before being rehoused in a large hive. There are several ways to introduce a queen into the nuc. There may be one or two sealed queen cells on the introduced frames. This technique is used to stop a large, strong colony swarming. A mated queen can be introduced into the nuc or the bees can be left to create a queen from an existing egg once it has hatched. Each roof on all my nucs have now had a filling of hay added, it's held in with hessian and the wooden crown board has been replaced with a piece of hessian that goes over the top of the frames. It is a technique described by Abbé Warré in his Peoples Hive and allows the bees to control the environment of the hive better. The mating hives/nucs for the Warrés are built and have had some bees and a ripe grafted queen cell placed in each compartment. The queens have hatched and are beginning to establish their own colonies and I’m making the finishing touches to the hives they will soon need.

A Nuc is a small starter hive approximately half the size of the standard hive and it contains 5 frames for a National hive. Nuc is short for nucleus and nucs are generally used for starting new colonies off in. My mating hives/nucs for the Warré hives are based on a design used by Gilles Denis in France and described in his book about commercial beekeeping in Warré type hives Each compartment has two top bars and space for a few bees, aqueen and some sugar syrup in an upturned jar. Once the colony is established and the queen has mated and laying eggs then they will be moved into a full size Warré box.