NEW 6 FRAME NUCLEUS
Paradise Honey of Finland have informed us of a new product which will be available soon. Our plan is to unveil this new product at the BBKA Spring Convention on 17th April. It is a 6 frame Langstroth nucleus in high density polystyrene. This nucleus has some very interesting features:
· Built to take 6 Langstroth frames or 5 frames and a frame feeder but with the capability of being converted to two 3 frame nucs. This 3 plus 3 configuration is achieved with a division board which slides down slots inside the body and through two entrances in the floor - one at each end. One or both of which can be closed off when required.
· Varroa floor for ventilation and mite monitoring.
· Reversible roof exactly like our full sized hives. This can be used as a top entrance if required but more usefully for a nuc it means with one of our plastic propolis screens cut down to size the roof effectively becomes a travel screen. Together with an open varroa floor this will provide lots of ventilation allowing nucs to be kept closed for even quite long delivery journeys. Ideal for nucs being collected by customers.
· Available in a range of depths.
A small hard plastic eke will also be available to raise the roof up enough for feeding fondant or varroa treatment.
The nuc will be available in the UK in a minimum of 2 sizes, Dadant/Jumbo Langstroth and Standard Langstroth. A version for Medium frames is also available but we have no plans to stock this unless there is strong demand. The standard Langstroth size will be fine for Medium frames and it will mean the full depth frame feeders we will shortly have in stock can be used.
Our target price for this nuc will be around £24.00 each for the standard Langtroth size. The Dadant/Jumbo Langstroth will be about £25.00 each. Both prices include VAT. These prices are subject to confirmation and minor details like exchange rates but we do not anticipate any signficant variation from the prices quoted.
There is also a Dadant Blatt version which is slightly deeper than standard Dadant. With a deeper version of our existing National conversion kit this would be suitable for National 14 * 12 but the same effect might be achieved with a standard Dadant and the small eke. We will have to see once we can get our hands on some hardware.
We will also look at producing a conversion kit for Commercial frames.
Some CAD pictures of this exciting new product are shown below.
