Quarti® Dadant Blatt 6-frame nuc (3+3) with reinforcements

01 · THE SIZE

Blatt, 47 cm: measure the top bar of your frames

Dadant Blatt is the standard in France and Italy and its brood frame has a 47 cm top bar; Dadant US, the usual one in Spain, is 48 and does not fit. If you are going to stock it with frames you already have, measure the top bar before ordering. Frames are not included; ours is the wired straight 47 × 30 one.

02 · HOW IT SPLITS

A divider in the groove, and one entrance per side

The body has a central inner groove that takes a divider board splitting the nuc into two three-frame compartments, and one entrance at the front and one at the back, so each colony flies from its own side. Quarti makes two dividers, one in MDF and one in stainless steel, and recommends the steel one because bees gnaw the MDF; neither comes with the nuc, which is the question that comes in most. Without a divider it is a normal six-frame nuc.

03 · WHAT IT IS MADE OF

Density-80 polystyrene with armoured rests

High-density expanded polystyrene, PS6 at 80 g/l, which insulates far more than wood and weighs a fraction: in a small nuc, insulation decides how much the bees spend on keeping warm. The parts that suffer, the frame rests and the edge where the hive tool goes in, are lined with ABS plastic edging, and the top carries spacers so the frames do not shift in transport. The floor has a fixed double varroa mesh and galvanised guides to slide in a tray.

04 · WHAT IT IS BOUGHT FOR

Mating, swarms and queen reserves

Two three-frame mating nucs in one box, two freshly caught swarms, or a reserve colony split in spring and united in autumn by pulling the divider. It is pressure-washed and disinfected with bleach; what it does not take is the blowtorch.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It measures 275 × 495 mm outside with the lid on; it comes without frames and without divider.