6F Dadant Blatt nuc poly Paradise®

01 · THE SIZE

Blatt, 47 cm: six 47 × 30 brood frames

The frames are Dadant Blatt, the standard in France and Italy: 47 × 30 cm with a 47 cm top bar. 48 cm Dadant US frames, the usual ones in Spain, do not fit; for those there is the sister nuc in the American size. Measure the top bar of your frames before ordering: that centimetre cannot be fixed.

02 · WHAT ARRIVES AND HOW IT GOES TOGETHER

As a kit, glue separate

You receive the screened floor, the body as tongue-and-groove walls with plastic profiles, the divider board, the two entrance reducers and the roof, all unassembled and with no instructions in the box, as two French reviews warn. It goes together by pushing the profiles into the rebates and, if you want it to stay put, with polystyrene glue, solvent-free and not included. No frames, no spacers (Hoffman frames space themselves; straight ones need a spacer bar) and no feeder: the system’s 5.5-litre top feeder comes separately and sits on top.

03 · WHAT FOR

Mating in pairs, catching swarms, transport

The divider board splits the chamber into two three-frame compartments, each with its own entrance at one end: two mating nucs in one box, or a single six-frame nuc with the board out. For moving, the roof is turned over: with the ventilation inwards the bees travel with air and the entrance closed by the reducer. Insulated, the three-frame nuc gets going in spring weeks before a wooden one.

04 · MATERIAL AND PAINT

Over 100 kg/m³; painted outside, water-based

Extra-hardened polystyrene of over 100 kg/m³: resists rodents and the hive tool and does not rot, but the sun attacks it. Paint it before stocking, the outer face only, with exterior water-based or UV-filter polyurethane paint; never enamel or solvent. Propolis is scraped cold; clean with hot water and neutral detergent or 2-4 % soda, and never a blowtorch.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

BeeBox system: body, floor, lid, entrances and the 5.5-litre feeder are also sold singly.