Alright, so you’ve got a nuc box with bees in it. Maybe it’s a nuc box that you’ve bought, or maybe it’s a nuc box that you’ve made yourself. Regardless of how you got the nuc box, you’re going to want to transfer them into a proper hive at some point.
Here’s the thing though: you don’t have to transfer them into a proper hive as soon as possible. In fact, you can actually leave them in the nuc box for quite a long time.
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking.
You’re thinking “Well, I don’t want to leave them in the nuc box for too long, because they’ll outgrow it.”
That’s a common misconception. They won’t outgrow the nuc box. As long as the nuc box has a queen excluder, they won’t even try. They’ll simply keep the queen inside the bottom box, and keep all their honey stores and brood in the box above. This means that you can leave the nuc box outside for as long as you want, even if it’s just a single box.
Since the brood chamber is the box that has the most activity, you could argue that a single brood box is the perfect size for a nuc box. Think about it. They’ll have the same amount of space for brood in the bottom box as they would in the bottom box of a full sized hive.
So, bees won’t outgrow a nuc box, because they’ll simply use the box above for honey stores. If you think about it, the only time you’ll ever need to give them another box is when they’ve filled up the second box to 80% or more. That’s when they’ll start to feel crowded. That’s when they’ll start preparing to swarm.
That’s the only time you’ll ever need to worry about giving them another box.
Until then, you’re fine.
“But what about the frames inside the nuc box? How many frames can I put in a nuc box?”
Ah, yes. That’s another thing. You see, you can completely fill a nuc box with frames, and the bees will be completely okay with that. You can put as many frames as you want in a nuc box.
That’s right. There’s no “minimum” or “maximum” number of frames for a nuc box.
You can have 1 frame in a nuc box, and it’ll work completely fine.
“But…” I hear you say. “What about the bees? Will they be okay?”
Well, there is a “minimum” and “maximum” number of bees for a nuc box, but the thing is, the number of bees is dictated by the number of frames. That is, the number of frames in the brood box.
Here’s the rule:
For every frame you take out of a nuc box, you’re taking out 1/8th of the bees.
So, for example, if you have a nuc box that’s completely full of frames, and you take out 1 frame, then you’ll be taking out 1/8th of the bees. That means that you’ll be left with 7/8ths of the bees, and your nuc box will be 7/8ths full.
“But what about the honey?” I hear you ask. “What do I do if there’s honey on the frames?”
Well, the thing is, you can’t really take out a frame that’s full of honey without taking all the honey out. If you do, then the honey will be dripping all over the place. You can try to catch it with a bucket or something, but that’ll be quite messy.
So, what’s the alternative?
Well, the alternative is to just leave the honey there. You can take a frame out, and use a knife to cut the honey out of it if you want, but you don’t have to. The bees will eat up the honey that you left in the hive, and they’ll clean up the frames. The only downside is that they’ll be stuck in the hive for a day or two while they do that, but it’s not really a big deal.
In fact, if you have a nuc box that’s completely full of frames, and you take them all out, then you’ll actually be better off. You’ll have removed the queen excluder, so the bees will be able to move between the boxes freely. That means that they’ll start to use the bottom box for brood, and the top box for honey stores.
It’s exactly what you want.
So, anyway, with that being said, let’s get into what the “minimum” and “maximum” number of frames you need for a nuc box are.
Here’s the rule again, in case you’ve forgotten:
For every frame you take out of a nuc box, you’re taking out 1/8th of the bees.
So, if you take out 1 frame, you’re taking out 1/8th of the bees. If you take out 2 frames, you’re taking out 2/8ths of the bees. If you take out 3 frames, you’re taking out 3/8ths of the bees.
And so on.
So, as you can see, the less frames you have in a nuc box, the more bees you’ll be taking out. The more frames you have in a nuc box, the less bees you’ll be taking out.
By the way, it’s worth mentioning that you don’t have to take the frames out to count them. You can just count through the frames, so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
That’s the maximum number of frames you can have in a nuc box.
That’s also the minimum number of frames you can have in a nuc box. If you have any less than that, then there will be too few bees to sustain the brood. The queen will start laying fewer and fewer eggs until she stops altogether.
So, there you have it. You can have anywhere between 1 and 8 frames in a nuc box, and you don’t have to worry about needing more space until you have 6 or more frames in there. The bees will be fine with that, and you won’t have to worry about them swarming while they’re in the nuc box.