Mike Palmer nuc method for UK national size

[Angry_Mob]

Abelo sell Maisemore nucs as they haven't developed their own yet.

Best thing to do is buy the BS Honey Bees nucs and buy the Maisemore brood chambers, they have a sale on during February so I plan to get a few more then. Someone linked Black Mountains Honey video earlier where he showed a simple modification to change the brood chambers to top bee space.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Abelo sell Maisemore nucs as they haven't developed their own yet.

Someone linked Black Mountains Honey video earlier where he showed a simple modification to change the brood chambers to top bee space.

I watched that in hope.
All he did was to remove the runners
I tried that with full size Swienty boxes. You end up with frame lugs glued down which are difficult to move. In the end I glued a beespace eke onto the top of the box.

 

[Angry_Mob]

Just wondering if you cut down a little more to a flat surface and glue a thin strip of wood along the length wether that would prevent it.

One to try this season.

 

[Millet]

As Poly Hive and Finman, they work to an extent, but as Black Mountain Honey who has had only 50% success with the BS Honeybee nucs. As an example of things that can go wrong. https://youtu.be/CI3EU8r85_c

He sure is a good egg with space for knowledge ..but for me i would put a stop to making youtube videos till he has this beekeeping lark nailed..otherwise he will make himself look like some American Amateur..sorry BMB but that is how i see it..

 

[SDM]

It's down to them being more suitable for my management, for one I overwinter them so they're already established with comb and brood for the first round of cells, also the slightly bigger volume provides a bigger buffer before they starve or get overcrowded, last year I took several packages of shook bees from them to keep them manageable.
If there is any negative effect from them being two little colonies in one box and so more confusing for returning queens this was masked by the advantages when it came to the final figures compared to other mini nucs in my operation.

Ok, kind of confirms what i thought. That its a qurstion of management rather than a specific flaw with the equipment .
Im wintering a bunch of kielers this year, doubles up to quadruples with a view to using them to re stock my kielers for the first cells.
So far so good.

 

[Erichalfbee]

He sure is a good egg with space for knowledge ..but for me i would put a stop to making youtube videos till he has this beekeeping lark nailed..otherwise he will make himself look like some American Amateur..sorry BMB but that is how i see it..

I disagree
There is more than enough space for Lawrence’s videos some of which are quite informative.
He is a new bee farmer trying to make a living.
Cut him some slack, please Steve. This is not the place for destructive criticism.

 

[domino]

Over the last five years I've had better percentages of successful matings from the lyson mini plus hives, which are a six half langstroth frame format with a removable divider down the middle and entrances either side, than with the apideas and kieler mating nucs.

I use these, very good. You can also remove the floors and stack them for overwintering.

 

[Millet]

I disagree
There is more than enough space for Lawrence’s videos some of which are quite informative.
He is a new bee farmer trying to make a living.
Cut him some slack, please Steve. This is not the place for destructive criticism.

I hear you Dani and my gob is now shut..

 

[Swarm]

Swarm,
is it this one?
https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/polystyrene-nucleus/national-poly-nucleus-brood-chamber/

A friend of mine had a poly nuc with added supers, I'll ask him which company made it.

Courty

That's the same, I make my own UHE floors.

 

[Courty]

Having done some research as a result of all the help sent my way, I reckon that at this stage it would be best to buy flat pack brood boxes and cut them in half before assembling with an extra bit of wood for the fourth inner wall, cost at around £13.50 for a half brood box.
Basic floors shouldn't be too difficult to modify.
My mate says it's Paynes that do the nuc boxes with extra stories of brood boxes and supers as an alternative.
Happy Days!

Courty

 

[drex]

Every body seems to be getting hung up on the type of box to use rather than the methodology that Mike Palmer promotes. Remember that his winters are real winters with four months of freezing temps.
His point is that of " brood factories".
For several years I have taken 8-10 colonies in home made wooden nucs through winter, each containing a new, home raised queen. I do put these nucs together in one block with insulation round the outside. One year I did make a 3 chamber queen castle, but in use it was so awkward I have not used it since.
As soon as the season really gets going I take brood out of these nucs and put it into my production colonies and replace with foundation. This results in strong production colonies ready for the flow and plenty of fresh drawn comb. Later in the season I combine the nucs to make good strong colonies for my queen rearing.
The concept of brood factories works such that every year I have so many bees I can give colonies away to folks just starting out with the hobby, and new queens to requeen my production colonies.
The box the bees are kept in is not important, it is the concept.

 

[Poly Hive]

Actually DREX no. I am not commenting on what he does, call it what you like. I call my operation the nuckery, as in the nucs are now self sufficient.

What I am highlighting and others have had issues too is putting nucs chhek by jowl. It;s not something I would promote as I said I found consitently two always became one which is frustrating to say the least.

Queen lost, bees lost, value lost, hardly a happy outcome. For the £xxx (insert own value) it's a lot cheaper to buy/make some nuc boxes over winter, oh hey that's now eh? And thereby save the grief and loss.

Maisy nucs stack though I am not keen on the lipping idea. I have a number on double brood and am tooling up to make my own.

And Dani if we can't make negative comments then the whole concept of review is lost. Amazon encourages it as do all review sites and whilst this is not a review site per se if we ignore commenting on rubbish then it's the naked emperor time surely?? in fact Amazon offer money back on ebooks if you are not happy....

PH

 

[domino]

Every body seems to be getting hung up on the type of box to use rather than the methodology that Mike Palmer promotes.

This is a point Mike makes in one of his talks. I've been using his basic plan about overwintered nucs for years and it revolutionised my beekeeping to the point I end up giving away nucs because I have too many going into winter.

I do this all in poly hives.

 

[mbc]

Having done some research as a result of all the help sent my way, I reckon that at this stage it would be best to buy flat pack brood boxes and cut them in half before assembling with an extra bit of wood for the fourth inner wall, cost at around £13.50 for a half brood box.
Basic floors shouldn't be too difficult to modify.
My mate says it's Paynes that do the nuc boxes with extra stories of brood boxes and supers as an alternative.
Happy Days!

Courty

I wouldn't go cutting the abelo poly brood boxes in half as the type of poly has a dense edge to it but a crumbly texture to the interior, maisies seem to have more loose beads of poly away from the surface too though swienty seem to have a more uniform density.

 

[Swarm]

Having done some research as a result of all the help sent my way, I reckon that at this stage it would be best to buy flat pack brood boxes and cut them in half before assembling with an extra bit of wood for the fourth inner wall, cost at around £13.50 for a half brood box.
Basic floors shouldn't be too difficult to modify.
My mate says it's Paynes that do the nuc boxes with extra stories of brood boxes and supers as an alternative.
Happy Days!

Courty

Both maisemore and paynes offer these extra boxes. A modified cedar box fits better with the principle of running side by side under one roof, the poly nucs would require a mod of sorts.

 

[Poly Hive]

There is utterly no point in putting poly nucs side by side. None. Zero.

I cannot make it clearer.

PH

 

[mbc]

There is utterly no point in putting poly nucs side by side. None. Zero.

I cannot make it clearer.

PH

I can think of two valivd points straight off, I'm sure there's more with a bit of thought but here you go;
1. Saves equipment e.g.. roofs and supers.
2. Smaller footprint if you have limited apiary space.

 

[mbc]

3. If you want to run a two queen system under one roof.

 

[mbc]

4. If you have your bees palletised they're necessarily side by side.

 

[mbc]

5. Stability in wind.