NUC - Mating Nucs

Mating Nucs

Mating nucs are a special type of nuc that may be even smaller than nucs that use standard size frames. These tiny nucs are sometimes called mini-mating nucs. Mating nucs are used in a queen mating yard. A capped queen cell is put into a mating nuc together with a sufficient number of attendant worker bees. When the virgin queen emerges and matures (a process that takes around five to seven days from the point at which she emerges), she flies out and mates with up to 20 drones before returning to the mating nuc. When mating is successful a nice brood pattern can be seen on the frames of the mating nuc. Successfully mated queens are caged and shipped to be used as production queens by beekeepers. Queen breeders raise thousands of queens in this fashion.