Mating Nucs
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An unmated queen needs a small colony from which she can start her mating flight.
An unmated queen needs a small colony from which she can start her mating flight. Mating nuc boxes or Mini Plus units with a few combs, fondant, and a handful of bees are standard. From one overwintered Mini Plus, three to four new queens can be raised within a month.
A Mini Plus unit is stocked with a frame feeder, one food comb, three brood combs (one of them with the youngest open brood), and one sheet of foundation. It is set up at least three kilometers from the old location. After about four weeks, the queens are laying. The most favorable time for a varroa treatment is before the first brood is capped.
Anyone wanting targeted mating goes to a mating station: a site within a radius of ideally at least seven kilometers with no other colonies, where father colonies provide the drones. A high drone density shortens the queens' flight distance and flight time and improves the result. Where no mating station is available, instrumental insemination remains an option, though it requires equipment, practice, and expert knowledge.