Mating Nucs

Kieler and Mini Plus mating nuclei, wooden and plastic frames, feeders, mini-discs and covers. From €0.45 to €100.

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KIELER® mating nuc

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5 reviews

Mini plus® mating nuc

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6 reviews

Polystyrene mating nuc

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14 reviews

Nuc Super APIDEA®

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2 reviews

Kieler wooden frame

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2 reviews
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Mating Nucs

Mating Nucs

A mating nucleus is a miniature hive with one job: to house a virgin queen while she flies out, mates and starts laying. Then the queen is removed and the nucleus is reused.

Why so small

Because the queen does not need a colony: she needs a few hundred bees. With a small nucleus you populate ten queens with the bees one hive would take, and that is the whole economics of queen rearing. The less population you tie up, the more mated queens per season.

Kieler or Mini Plus

  • Kieler — the smallest and cheapest to populate. Wooden (€0.95) or plastic (€0.99) frames. It stands cold less well and stores need watching.
  • Mini Plus — slightly bigger, with the Nicot® half frame (€1.45). More stable, can be overwintered and also works to start a small nuc.

What decides the outcome

The feeder (€4.10) is not optional: a nucleus with few bees runs out of stores within days, and a virgin that goes hungry never lays properly again. And the mini-discs (€0.45) close the entrance during populating and moving.

The queen comes out of queen-rearing tools; once mated, she is marked with the year colour.