KIELER® mating nuc

Clean interior design, easy to wash and resistant to wax moth

🧹 No hidden corners: wax moth has nowhere to hide

Unlike other mating nucs such as the Apidea or Swi-Bine, the Kieler has a clean, simple interior with no awkward recesses. This makes a real difference over winter storage: wax moth (Galleria mellonella) cannot find crevices to nest in, and cleaning takes just minutes with hot water and a brush. Less maintenance, more seasons of reliable use.

🔄 Multi-purpose sliding floor

The floor features a sliding panel that controls ventilation and opens or closes the bee exit. Its usefulness goes further: removing it creates a wide opening at the bottom, perfect for shaking nurse bees directly into the nuc when setting it up for mating. You can also introduce a mated queen through the floor or the roof when requeening a queenless colony.

📐 Everything included, room to expand

The kit includes 4 plastic frames (top bar 170 × 25 mm) with a honeycomb relief pattern for wax attachment. The body holds up to 6 frames, though with the removable double-frame feeder fitted the working capacity is 4. The 3-position rotary entrance disc (open, closed and ventilation) simplifies handling during transport and mating. If you need more space, an optional super (sold separately) slots directly onto the body, and the roof is designed so nucs can be stacked for transport.

💡 How it works in practice

The process is straightforward: shake 100 to 150 g of young nurse bees into the nuc (through the floor or roof), introduce a sealed queen cell or a virgin queen, close the entrance and keep the nuc in a cool, dark place for 24-48 hours so the colony settles. Then move it to your mating apiary, open the entrance and let the queen fly. In roughly 10-15 days, you should have a mated, laying queen ready to be introduced into a full colony.