Abelo commercial nucs. Seriously unimpressed !

[SDM]

It would be nice if they were actually commercial nucs at all, but what I've been given is langstroth nucs with a partial division board at one end. Since the board doesn't extend to the bottom the bees have permanent access to the void to practice their brace comb. The division board also limits access to one end of the feeder, a feeder that is shorter than the box and means only 5mm of thin plastic between the bees and the outside at each end. Why build a poly nuc then make it cold?
Should there be crown boards included? None were, which gives me the option of leaving the feeder on with it's cold spots and making roof.fittment poor or giving the bees access to the 2.5"of dead space in the roof( as if they didn't have enough room for brace comb).
After driving 5hrs to collect them they best not think I'm paying for the return postage.

 

[oliver90owner]

I’ve used Langstroth 6 frame jumbo polynucs with 14 x 12 frames for years, with no problems.

Seems like you have little or no imagination to make them work!

Fill the void and they won’t be building brace comb, not that they will until they run out of space on their side of the divider. No idea of the rest of your complaints, but I expect they are trivial or easily circumvented.

How many did you buy? Without checking one out before purchase?

 

[SDM]

That you choose to bodge something together is up to you. That you consider your time , effort and materials to be worthless, I'll have to agree with in the absence of further information. But I'm sure others will be interested to know that you think it's the customers responsibility to bring product you may sell up to standard. Why do I doubt you make that attitude known when you go about your business ?
I chose to buy something sold for a purpose that it turned out to be unfit for. No amount of imagination on my part is going to make them the item I was sold.
They were.purchased having handled some of their nucs in langstroth format, since everything in their advertising is identical except the stated frame size I bought on the strength of the advertising and the companies reputation.
A mistake for sure.

 

[WoodenBeam]

Hope you didn't purchase too many..........if only a few then not as bad as you fear I hope. I only use nuc's to grow on splits & swarms quickly with a full feeder attached prior to transferring to a full size box, they don't get time to build brace comb in the voids you mention & I feel they are warmer than a wooden nuc which assists in the rapid growth - plus a lot cheaper unless you make your own.
I have switched to maisemore commercial nuc's but these aren't ideal either - still cheaper than wooden & they are turned around 2/3 times per season so make good value.

 

[Anduril]

Probably similar in design to the multi-format everynuc. If you drove 5 hours to get them, did you inspect them before parting with your cash?

 

[SDM]

Probably similar in design to the multi-format everynuc. If you drove 5 hours to get them, did you inspect them before parting with your cash?

Nope (I know) they were paid for in advance for collection at the bbka conference. They were pallet wrapped with a bunch of small parts inside I wasn't about to start unboxing them in the middle of a conference carpark when the wrap was great for transporting without losing pieces. I had other equipment to load, and a return trip in mind so I was rushing. The only thing that would have changed is that I'd have been asking for a refund there and then and could have picked up what turns out to be a far superior Maismore product with a conference discount.

 

[local_beekeeper]

,,After driving 5hrs to collect them they best not think I'm paying for the return postage''

Driving 5hr to to save on shipping £6.50???

Well done!!

PS

This is not a Langstroth box.

 

[SDM]

,,After driving 5hrs to collect them they best not think I'm paying for the return postage''

Driving 5hr to to save on shipping £6.50???

Well done!!

PS

This is not a Langstroth box.

It's langstroth frame length and I don't see another nuc they make that could have been repurposed in this way. What makes you say it isn't ?
No it wasn't 5 hrs drive to save £6.50 or the £40 in conference discounts on the nucs it was the discounts on the 1500 frames, poly brood bodies, roofs and sundries to fill a livestock trailer and car, not to mention the wax exchange. Savings of several hundred pounds in total. So yes, other than that Abelo fiasco you're right, quite well done.

 

[Finman]

.
A good price in that nuc hive, £ 35.

If you see something wrong, you may correct it, like Oliver said.

I make nucs from normal poly box by splitting it with table saw. Then DIY floors and roofs.

6 frames is good for small colony. It builds up faster than 6 frame of bees in 10 frame box.

 

[SDM]

.
A good price in that nuc hive, £ 35.

If you see something wrong, you may correct it, like Oliver said.

I make nucs from normal poly box by splitting it with table saw. Then DIY floors and roofs.

6 frames is good for small colony. It builds up faster than 6 frame of bees in 10 frame box.

£45 with a feeder, my commercial hives are 12 frames, so yes the difference in buildup is significant.
I build my own wooden hives, national and commercial. But when I buy them I expect to get what I pay for. It's simply their loss when better options exist.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

A commercial nuc should be just that - or adapted well enough not to have the issues raised.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

It would be nice if they were actually commercial nucs at all, but what I've been given is langstroth nucs with a partial division board at one end. Since the board doesn't extend to the bottom the bees have permanent access to the void to practice their brace comb. The division board also limits access to one end of the feeder, a feeder that is shorter than the box and means only 5mm of thin plastic between the bees and the outside at each end. Why build a poly nuc then make it cold?
Should there be crown boards included? None were, which gives me the option of leaving the feeder on with it's cold spots and making roof.fittment poor or giving the bees access to the 2.5"of dead space in the roof( as if they didn't have enough room for brace comb).
After driving 5hrs to collect them they best not think I'm paying for the return postage.

Instead of bellyaching here try a calm conversation with Damien. You may be short of a few bits or you may have a valid point. Either way Damien will want to have satisfied customers.
I see him from time to time and he's always very helpful.

 

[mpenn]

langstroth nucs with a partial division board at one end.

My Langstroth nucs from Swienty have a groove for a board to go in to make them National

Should there be crown boards included?

Who else makes crown boards for nucs and why would you want them ??

Me thinks you like complaining

 

[Beefriendly]

Should there be crown boards included? None were, which gives me the option of leaving the feeder on with it's cold spots and making roof..

I think the only nucs with "crownboards" are those sold by Paynes. A sheet of thin clear plastic. Non of my other various nucs ever came with one.

 

[Hachi]

Instead of bellyaching here try a calm conversation with Damien. You may be short of a few bits or you may have a valid point. Either way Damien will want to have satisfied customers.
I see him from time to time and he's always very helpful.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Instead of bellyaching here try a calm conversation with Damien. You may be short of a few bits or you may have a valid point. Either way Damien will want to have satisfied customers.
I see him from time to time and he's always very helpful.

extremely helpful.
They were very conscientious in helping me get rid of a great load from my wallet yesterday.

Due to two false starts - once because of the snow at the tradex and the unfortunate necessity to cancel their appearance at the Welsh convention, they patiently fielded phone calls then eventually brought specific items to the spring convention so that I could view before deciding whether to buy or not.

 

[SDM]

langstroth nucs with a partial division board at one end.

My Langstroth nucs from Swienty have a groove for a board to go in to make them National

Should there be crown boards included?

Who else makes crown boards for nucs and why would you want them ??

Me thinks you like complaining

Payne's and maismore both have crownboards.
Why would I want one ? Because otherwise I have 2.5" of bee space above the frames.
"Me thinks" you know nothing about me and other than for the obvious amusement it gives you, you'd be better keeping your ill informed comments to yourself.

 

[SDM]

I think the only nucs with "crownboards" are those sold by Paynes. A sheet of thin clear plastic. Non of my other various nucs ever came with one.

Do any of those nucs have 2.5" of void between the frames and roof?

 

[SDM]

Instead of bellyaching here try a calm conversation with Damien. You may be short of a few bits or you may have a valid point. Either way Damien will want to have satisfied customers.
I see him from time to time and he's always very helpful.

No amount of extra pieces is going to deal with the approx. 1 and 1/4 litres of dead space on the other side of the divider. That alone is a good enough reason to avoid this product and thus a post here is useful information to any potential.customer of theirs. Nobody would be buying their national nucs if they'd taken the same liberty with adapting a langstroth nuc in this manner.
I contacted Abelo before I posted here and have every intention of posting updates on how they put this right. They've already lost what will be a follow-up order for another 30 nucs and whether they see any portion of the 2.5 to 4 thousand pounds I'll be spending on extraction/processing equipment this year, rests in part with how this turns out.

 

[oliver90owner]

Ha ha. I expect your extraction kit would have been the £2500 from Abelo and the alternative you will purchase from somewhere else will be 4k? Good business plan!

Seems like you want to have your cake and eat it as well.

When I bought my nucs from Modern Beekeeping, I knew exactly what I was getting and the simple conversion was peanuts. I am amazed that you claim only 5mm of plastic between the bees and the outside of the nuc - please explain how this comes about. The walls of mine are much thicker than that.

Regarding the claimed 2 1/2” (?) head space, is that any different for those that buy Langstroth? I wonder how they cope, if that is the case.

Sounds like you wanted £60 nucs for £45. And I would expect a further discount, buying by the pallet.

Oh, and mine were not painted, either. But they are doing fine, nearing ten years on....