Mating nucs absconding- any theory

[Olivia9801]

I have moved away from the Apidea's, simply got fed up of them absconding, I tried almost everything. I have now started using Mini Plus, have not had any issues with them so far.

I enjoy using Apideas but have unfortunately bought some of the cheapies from China. You say you've moved away from Apideas, would you sell them if you still have them? I put an advert in the "Wanted" section but no joy yet!
I'd pay postage obviously.

 

[nantmoel]

Sorry I gave them all away to another beekeeper, Mini Plus are so much cheaper to buy and suit me better.

 

[Finman]

Start to use 3 normal frame mating nucs, and the nuc will never abscond. But the nuc needs brood there, that bees feel it cosy.

If the mating nuc box has 3 separate rooms, losses will be big. I changed those to solitary nucs and losses went to zero.

 

[jeff33]

Start to use 3 normal frame mating nucs, and the nuc will never abscond. But the nuc needs brood there, that bees feel it cosy.

If the mating nuc box has 3 separate rooms, losses will be big. I changed those to solitary nucs and losses went to zero.

Agreed and I tend to use a mix of 3 frames nucs (normal size) and mini as I don't have the resources to populate too many 3 frames nucs unfortunately. I will probably make a few more over the winter as they are really handy, and as you say don't abscond.
On a slightly different note I saw on a video a 8x 4frames hive. It looks like a top bar hive but has 8 separate section to fit 4 national frames nucs, each with its own entrance and crown board. It may be my project for the winter.

 

[Ian123]

Here’s my way of avoiding any issues

 

[Finman]

If you rear 15 queens and you put there one full frame of bees and one frood frame, it will be a normal hive to found the mating nucs.

 

[Ian123]

I find once the nucs are up and running they are easily split and produce multiple nucs themselves. Come autumn nucs can be easily combined

 

[jeff33]

Will be making a few more 3 and 5 frames over the winter as I only use Maisie's 6 frames atm.

 

[Finman]

I use to keep the queen laying in mating nucs 4 weeks, that I see what kind of brood and bees the queen does

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Heat seems to be the problem with Swibine and Apidea types. As soon as the queen has mated, a piece of queen excluder over the entrance stops her leaving. A roof tile over them helps too - gives shade and also acts as a weight to stop them moving. But they will abscond, sadly. I do wonder whether they are just too small and don't really get the queen working well enough with minimal room to lay in. However, I have 1/2 dozen Abelo mini-plus nucs and no absconding experienced so far (apart from a 4 frame wooden one I made) and they are big enough to over-winter queens in; you can plop one on top of another very easily too in late summer. The entrance is a bit naff without an excluder capability.