Nuc Super APIDEA®

01 · WHEN TO ADD IT

When the queen is laying and the three frames are full, not before

An APIDEA nuc runs on about 100 g of bees over three mini frames, and that population heats its cube and no more. Add volume too early and all it does is cool down: the brood suffers and the virgin takes longer to fly to mate. The moment is the opposite one: the queen is mated, there is brood on all three frames and the bees have no free cells left. Then the super adds five frames and the queen can keep laying for a week or several while you wait for her destination hive to be ready, or simply keep her in reserve. With the APIDEA top feeder above it (up to 1.2 kg of feed), a nuc with a super keeps a young queen in reserve for weeks without opening it.

02 · HOW IT FITS

Between the body and the lid, with its five frames in

Take off the lid, seat the super on the nuc body and fit the five APIDEA mini frames with mini foundation, in the same orientation as the ones below. Back on top goes the lid, or the top feeder if you use one. The polystyrene walls of about 20 mm are the same as the nuc’s, so the whole stays insulated top to bottom and the thermal envelope is not broken at the joint. Check it sits on the whole perimeter with nothing stepped: a gap in a nuc this small is a door for robbing.

03 · WHAT IT IS NOT

Neither a honey super nor a production hive

It is brood space to delay the transfer, not a honey super, and an APIDEA with a super is still a mini nuc: once the queen has proved her laying, she moves to a normal five or six frame nuc with her bees. It is part of the APIDEA system: it fits all its nucs and no other format, because the 24 × 15 cm footprint is its own. The photo shows it with frames inside, but only the super body is supplied: the five mini frames and the feeder are bought separately.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

One or two supers for every three nucs covers the usual case: only the queens that are late leaving for their hive need the extra room.