Layens Nuc with Bees and Mated Iberian Queen (6 Frames)

01 · WHY NINE AT NIGHT

The hour is part of the product

A colony is only whole once everyone is back. Close a nuc at midday and the foragers stay outside — you drive off with a box holding half the bees you paid for.

That is why collections are scheduled in spring, on Fridays, from 21:00: at dusk the population is inside. We confirm the exact date as it approaches.

02 · THE TRIP TO YOUR APIARY

What goes on inside the box

A closed nuc full of bees generates heat and damp. It travels ventilated and must not sit in the sun in the boot or spend the night in the car: it goes straight out and into its final position.

That is the other advantage of collecting at night: you travel in the cool and the nuc settles before sunrise. Open the entrance on arrival or at first light, not at midday.

03 · BETWEEN FIVE AND FIFTEEN DAYS

The window has two reasons

The five-day minimum is so the colony orients itself to the new site and steadies before you move it again.

The fifteen-day maximum is because six Layens frames get tight: if the queen runs out of room to lay, the colony backs up or starts preparing to swarm. Transferring inside that window is what turns the nuc into a hive rather than a problem.

04 · WHAT TO HAVE READY FIRST

Prepare the space, not the box

Before you come to collect it, have ready: the Layens hive assembled and in place, frames with foundation for them to draw, stimulative feed in case the weather turns, and the entrance reduced for the first days if there is robbing at your site.

Plus the usual kit: suit, smoker and hive tool. Format rules — the frames are Layens and only go into a Layens hive.

05 · BEES ARE LIVESTOCK

The paperwork, before you reserve

A nuc with bees in it is not a box of equipment: it is livestock. To take it away you need your apiary registered and the movement paperwork in order.

If you do not have it yet, or are not sure how it works where you are, tell us when you reserve and we will sort it before fixing a date. That is what stops the paperwork, rather than the bees, being the problem on collection day.

06 · BEFORE YOU RESERVE

This is the live nucleus: