Nuc/mini mating nuc placement

[Bush_84]

Hello all. In my years as a beekeeper I have only kept production hives but this year I have concrete plans to expand into running Nucs and queen rearing. I say this every year but I've already bought the queens for the Nucs lol. Stuck now. So as of now I have a single Stan that could probably hold 5 hives that would be practically touching. Four would be reasonable. Three would be cozy. I have built another stand that is about as long. I have three hives (last I checked there were three lol). I have two packages and a queen coming in may. I plan on turning the queen into a nuc and the packages into more production hives. So that'd be five hives and one nuc. I am also making a system of mini mating Nucs.

So here's my plan. Put stands next to each other. Three old hives on existing and two packages on another. I have a spot that is out of the way behind my bee shed. It's probably 50 yards from the main stands. It's quiet and nobody goes back there. I have two top bar hives that don't get used and may never get used unless I find myself swimming with extra bees or a swarm without a place. It's about waist high and would serve as a nice stand for mating Nucs. The only down side is that this spot is on the north side of the building. So direct sun would be minimal. Is that even an issue for mini mating Nucs? 

So here's the big question. Where do I put my regular Nucs?  I don't really care about sunlight for mini mating Nucs but that would seem to be an issue for a regular nuc, which I would want to ramp up as fast as possible. On the other hand would the proximity to my big hives encourage robbing the Nucs or am I overthinking it?  It's an 8 acre property so I could always setup a third spot but that feels like a bit overboard.

[jalentour]

Use robber screens.
Keep mini's and nucs strong.
Sun is good.
I'm doing the same but spreading them out.  Probably don't need to though.

[Jim134]

My question is why are you even bothering with mini nucs. Not very practical unless you're going to raise about 300 Queens. A person with stick with all standard equipment.


                 BEE HAPPY Jim 134 

[cao]

So here's my plan. Put stands next to each other. Three old hives on existing and two packages on another.

I would separate the two packages as much as you can at least until they get established.  When I installed 2 packages a few years ago I had a problem with bees drifting to my other hives(I guess they didn't like the package queens).  Yours might do alright but mine didn't.

So here's the big question. Where do I put my regular Nucs?  On the other hand would the proximity to my big hives encourage robbing the Nucs or am I overthinking it?  It's an 8 acre property so I could always setup a third spot but that feels like a bit overboard.

I put my nucs about 100-150 yds. away from my main hives.  I didn't have an issue with robbing until the summer dearth(august).  By then my nuc yard had hives in size from 5 frames to full size hives.  I think the different size hives in close proximity had something to do with it.  The strong picking on the weak.  I'm going to have to find another spot to put nucs at this year since my "nuc yard" is full of overwintered hives right now.

[little john]

My own view is to either raise nucs in a separate yard, several miles away, or keep 'em in the home apiary protected by anti-robbing screens.  Distancing them away by a few hundred yards is neither here nor there - as they're still 'well within range'.

Because I have just the one home apiary (by choice), I've decided this year to start-off all my nucs at the beginning of the season (even though, as I use standard frames, this procedure is heavy on bees) so that they'll be at the largest possible size come August, which is the start of the 'robbing season' around here.

I'm not a great fan of mini-nucs, although I can see how they would appeal to a queen producer.  If I ever decided to go down that route, then I'd use half-length frames (9" depth) in divided five-frame nuc boxes, and I've been cutting partition grooves in all nuc box builds for some time now, just in case I should ever decide to venture into queens.
LJ

[fatshark]

Keep your mini-nucs out of full sun ... there's no better way of encouraging them to abscond. I put them on low stands in the lee of a hedge or similar. Mini-nucs are a lot of work to prepare and maintain. If you have the resources I'd use full frame 3-5 frame nucs for queen mating - they need less attention, contain more stores, are better at defending themselves and it's easier to determine whether the queen has a good laying pattern.

[Bush_84]

One of my biggest issues right now is having the bees to mate queens. I can invest very few bees to mate a queen in one of the Mann lake double mating nucs. I also got some on sale. I have also made frames myself. I have also modified my unused warre hive bodies to fit these frames. So I can essentially move them out of those tiny boxes and into a big box when done. So at least for now it's something I can get into with minimal investment in bees.

So maybe this isn't a bad place to put them if shade is good for them.

[Jim134]

  If you read the whole thread you may get some insight.. on raising Queens.

http://www.beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=46556.0


      BEE HAPPY Jim 134 

[BeeMaster2]

Bush,
I have had very little luck doing splits in my apiary.
On the other hand, I have done a few trap outs that always create a new queens. The last one I put one frame of eggs and bees in a 5 frame nuc and set it next to a hive in a building. It turned out that the bees had abandoned the hive just before I set the nuc. I kept it there for 4 weeks to catch any stragglers coming out. That hive with just one frame of bees and a 4 empty frames made a queen and grew to bee a strong hive. If I did that in my apiary they would never make it.
Jim

[Bush_84]

  If you read the whole thread you may get some insight.. on raising Queens.

http://www.beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=46556.0


      BEE HAPPY Jim 134 

Ya I can see how letting the queen lay would make sense and I can see how a mini mating nuc would hinder that development. On the other hand I still have all of these warre hives that I'll never use. I'm altering them to accept 8 of these mini mating nuc frames. So once they are mated and laying I can move them into these larger hive bodies.

Before my table saw motor melted I was making frames for the cost of staples, glue, and electricity. Ya I bought the Mann lake Nucs but they were in their bargain bin. Also the warre hives are free. So even if it doesn't work out I love tinkering. 😁 I can also overwinter these units. The biggest drawback is the inability to easily to move them into my standard Lang equipment. If I really wanted to I could make it work, but it wouldn't be easy.

Also because I'm excited...link to my new table saw!

http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-Hybrid-Table-Saw-with-Riving-Knife-Polar-Bear-Series/G0715P

[BeeMaster2]

Bush,
It says it is a hybrid. I looked at the site but it did not work properly. What are they referring to?
Jim

[Bush_84]

https://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-G0715P-Hybrid-Riving-10-Inch/dp/B006SJIEG4

It's basically between a cabinet table saw and contractor table saw. IMO it seems to me that it is more like their cheapest cabinet saw, but just has a smaller table. The thing weighs 400 lbs!  I had a portable Rockwell previously and spent ~$350 on it and the motor melted after ~5 years. That seems premature to me. A lot of the reviews from woodworking forums were good. A lot of people said that it'd be a lifetime saw, which is ultimately what I wanted. I'm not interested in buying another saw in 5 years. I spent more than I'd like to have, but I'm banking of the investment being a long term one.

[BeeMaster2]

5 years is way to short of time for a motor to fail. I have a shop smith that was built in 1955 that is still going strong. I had to replace the cord, belts and bearings but the motor is still good.
If anyone is interested in it and lots of accessories, I plan on selling it.
Jim

[paus]

I have used Grizzly tools, hand and large power, for several years.  The saw you reference as "hybrid" Means it is a light weight cabinet saw or a heavy weight contractors saw. But it would still be a pain to move on a regular basis.  It would probably do what you need to do for many years unless you use it to rip lots of hardwood  2 by lumber.

[Bush_84]

It weighs ~400 lbs.  So once it's in place it's staying there lol.