it's Pete from cheap homesteading and I'm in the garage today and I'm gonna
try to whip up some mating news so basically a mating nuke is where you put
a queen cell she hatches she flies she gets made it comes back and she starts
laying traditionally there were small little boxes with a little bit of bees
but I find it kind of a bit of a waste it still takes resources to make them
and I would rather take those resources and put them in a little bit bigger box
with actual full-size frames and I want to be able to turn them into a
full-sized high by just putting them in a bigger box or will continue using them
as a mating nuke remove the Queen and then put more Queen cells so that is my
thoughts I like it the bigger full-size frames you use them as swarm boxes I
find they're just more versatile and I'll show you the easiest way you can
make them so let's go it so basically what you want is your frame to sit down
on the ledge and the bottom still have a little bit of a gap when you put it in
so we're gonna cut a bunch more of these
we're gonna take our pieces and we're going to put add a toad ledge on the
outside so when you frames will sit on that and they'll be no higher than the
top of here so let's cut them
okay so your MPs will look kind of like this job your lip and now I have to
drill holes so what on half of them I have to drill holes because of the front
is the only side that's gonna have the hole in it
okay I'm not huge on measuring so I'm just gonna pick a spot somewhere in the
center and towards the bottom of the box and we're gonna drill these holes
now we're going to set up our table saw to be basically the width of these words
so I'm going to cut the piece of plywood that'll be our base of our nuke boxes a
friend that's a carpenter and this is like flooring it's normally tongue and
groove plywood flooring stuff they didn't need pieces they've cut us he's
supplied me with a whole bunch of this plywood which I appreciate it's great
and it's perfect for this so we're going to cut us into strips for the base of
the high
so we take one piece here we sit our frame in okay there it's a little mark
you like my high-tech measuring as long as I cut it on a miter saw my angles on
the street so I know when I'm here I'll cut them all to this light
okay later I'm going to use my air nailer but we're just going to do this
for now
a 2x6 will hold three frames nicely so whenever I am done whenever the Queen is
started laying it and she's all laid out and everything I can have a remover or I
can remove a frame a brute give her a fresh one or or whatever now I'm going
to set up the side so that should be the right width now we're going to rip down
a bunch of boards
okay so let's try to do a bit of a fitting up here okay so the important
dimension is actually going to be the top because you want the lid just sit
perfectly flat make sure that's flat
okay so now I'm gonna make some lids I going to have to I'm gonna try to go for
like a migratory mid style I just think it'd be easier I can cut it pretty well
the with the nukes and it'll be all good
dang gonna set the fence up I'm gonna make it about 1/4 inch wider on either
side then the box is a little bit of overhang
you know I'm not big on measuring I find
it it's nice just measure what you need
how seem to get it home
okay so I'm going to throw a rock on each one and I think that is as good as
it needs to be okay so this year has been so different with the amount of
loss I've had and how late the spring has come so I honestly haven't used
mating nooks these events she will be fully just so I have a supply of Queens
for my own apiary so as a little bit each year you kind of try to build but
for this year I think I'm going to use them for expansion I'm gonna try to make
very early small splits the problem with making splits where I am is we still
have pretty cool mornings and if you make them too small that could be bad
because it can't keep food warm and all that so putting them in a smaller space
helps that so I might use these mating nukes to start off really small splits
for this year but really next year I'm hoping this will just help me I'll have
a supply of native Queens and I'll have more resources I don't have much
resources I don't have very many heights to rob frames out of so Spain Queens so
that's how you do it see you guys have a good room