Mini Mating Hive Review - Bee Equipment Mating Hive - Queen Rearing

[@Qbee977]

Good night 👍👍👍

[@kodi.hartMTB]

Totally agree with you there, I love these mini nucs I have 25 of them and they work great 👍

[@BlackMountainHoney]

That's good to hear! 😀

[@timgoodin42053]

Thank you for the video, I bought three for experimentation last year and had great results about 12-15 new queens. I will try the plastic foundation this year on the new ones I bought. Last year, I ended up hanging three of the mini frames with wax starter strips in an empty langstroth frame and put them in a regular deep colony and the frames were drawn out in 2 days. I cycled them through to get all the frames pre drawn out and ready to go for the bees. The only disadvantage I saw was the time management was pretty critical as a new mated queen will lay a frame up rapidly. I did a lot of shifting queens to two frame nucs to prevent absconding. I enjoy your channel and look forward to seeing your progression with these mini nucs.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks for your insight Tim. Time is going to be the main challenge for me I feel. We will see how they go.

[@CastleHives]

I plan to use a few of these next year. . Jose, California Beekeeper, uses them and has a ton. I’m curious how they’ll work. Thanks for the review.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes I've seen Jose's videos on them. Good to share tips if people use the same equipment 😀

[@JulianMartin51]

I have a couple of these. Agree that poly not as great as higher priced variants, but realistically rearing queens is done in better weather. Appreciate that need to be cautious of placement to avoid absconding due to overheating

[@stephenkelly2365]

I bought a few of these to try this season. I think I’m going cut the wax foundation in half, I find you need to keep knocking back mini mating nucs by cutting out wax to prevent absconding.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes - definitely a bit of an art. I am excited for the season and the challenge

[@stephenkelly2365]

@@BlackMountainHoney Same, we get through February we’re more or less there 👍

[@tedo844]

Apparently, the bees like the a point of the hexagonal comb shape pointing upwards, I’d cut up foundation for mating hives and rotated it upwards to suit their comb shape preference

[@ahmedbounce3053]

Thanks i appreciate your educational videos

[@won2winit]

Laurence what's the dimensions for the plastic foundation as have ordered two of the mating nucs but I have some yellow plastic foundation so will cut to fit....

[@jack00scarecrow]

great video. one possible good thing about lightweight softer poly is that there is more air inside it so it often has a higher R value, i.e. it's a better insulator

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes. Marginally. I'd prefer them to be a bit tougher but I'm not complaining for the price. Up against a badger, even an Apidea would be getting trashed in seconds

[@davidsmith663]

I got one of these, put in a queen cell, some fondant and nurse bees. Two weeks on, the bees have built no comb, have just started to hang around the queen cell and just eat. Is this normal?

[@davidhefner5668]

The yellow plastic end frames are narrowed at the bottom just like traditional wooden ones wh8ch allow for 'bee space'. If the frames are pushed flush against the sides of the box then what is the point of shaping them that way? The bees can't get through as there is no space behind them.

[@simonruffels2270]

What do you do with the bees once you have finished with its mating use? Thanks.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Ill shake them into into a nuc

[@benlangton3484]

Hi Laurence thank you for the video. If I may I'd like to make a video request. Could you try overwintering the 70 mating hives in the 5 frame configuration to see if the proportion of overwintered queen's is comparable to your other colonies?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Ooh. I do love a challenge! Consider it done :D

[@won2winit]

I could see stores and feeding being an issue for such a small mating nuc

[@tobyhall9920]

Wow for £7.50 I'm impressed I bought swi-bine mating hives years ago for £15 and they same density poly and have crap fixed feeder

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes. Price has come right down and removable feeder makes it so much easier to work

[@richardevans3084]

Amazon sells these Nucs here in the US but doesn’t sell plastic foundation to go with them ,also trying to contact Beextm Beekeeping just throws me back to Amazon .Just thrown them into shed and reverting back to my bee consuming wooden nucs

[@Goochieman]

What was the website you bought these from?

[@mehran_esfandyari1]

👏👏👏🐝🐝

[@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801]

For the money concerned they look like a bargain. Look forward to seeing the series and updates. Hope you find time to do everything!

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Ha! I'm already a bit worried about that! 😀

[@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801]

@@BlackMountainHoney Don't neglect your diy or your good wife might not be too impressed!

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801 Haha! Indeed! I've become so bad at DIY lately. No time for anything

[@won2winit]

Laurence would painting the outside of the feeder not make it a tighter fit making it harder to move?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Did I say that? I am going to paint the inside of the feed only. Slip of the tongue possibly. I do talk a rather large amount of gibberish!

[@won2winit]

@@BlackMountainHoney easy done as you have lots to think about, but better to clear things up before someone does it causing issues

[@won2winit]

What's your plans on placing/securing them in your mating site?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@won2winit Trying to convince the landowner to let me strap them to the fence posts! Failing that, some sort of pallet/baton configuration to keep them off the ground

[@Stumper52]

@@BlackMountainHoney may I suggest vineyard concrete posts. Use two of them horizontally for a stand on some blocks. They are relatively cheap (at least where I'm from), are 3-4m long and made to withstand some serious side loading (can be used even for main colonies). Just make sure they are prestressed posts (the rebar is tensioned and then concrete is poured into the mould) - the ones used at the ends of rows. Also make sure they are same size on both ends.

[@Cloudkicker000]

Any updates? :)

[@gamingeandpets873]

Hey Could you make little colonys with the minny mating nuc