5 Frames Dadant nuc RideNuc®

01 · BOTH DADANTS

The frame rest is set as you fold it

This box takes both sizes: Dadant Blatt with a 47 cm top bar and Dadant US at 48 cm. Not by accident — the width where the frame lugs rest folds to suit, with about a centimetre of play, and that is where you set your size. Assemble it without paying attention to that fold and the box will feel too long and the frames will shift inside; that is not a fault in the box, it is the adjustment left undone.

02 · ASSEMBLY

It ships flat and closes by hand, but the first time is slow

No glue or adhesive: it folds and clips together. That said, and going by those who have already done it, the first one takes considerably longer than you expect and the second goes together easily — so do it at home with the manual in front of you, not in the field with a swarm waiting. Two worthwhile aids: stapling the folds firms the assembly up, and a couple of adhesive hook-and-loop pads secure the lid against wind and the knocks of transport.

03 · WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

A light season box, not a wintering hive

The material is food-grade polypropylene in twinwall sheet — the stuff delivery crates are made of: it weighs about 600 g empty, washes down, stands weather far better than cardboard, folds flat for storage and is recyclable at the end of its life. The air channels in the sheet insulate a little, but this is a wall millimetres thick: it is for collecting a swarm, moving a split or delivering a nucleus you have sold, not for a colony to winter in. It carries ventilation perforations and the entrance is formed in the material itself.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Frames are not included, and neither are the staples or the hook-and-loop pads. If the box will stay populated for a long stretch or sit somewhere exposed, some beekeepers prefer to replace the moulded entrance with a metal one.