That's where we were heading....and where I will be heading again once I start restocking -but they won't, strictly, be 'mini' as such.
Printable View
https://www.holtermann-shop.de/Koeni...gt9v492p6tv083
Its a 1/3rd frame size box, with candy store (above - I prefer below so it never runs down in the heat). They are placed in a wooded housing
https://www.holtermann-shop.de/Koeni...gt9v492p6tv083
for insulation and protection from the sun (the windows are not otherwise idea).
The system is handy as you can check if the queen is : there, mated & laying without opening anything up.
you pay for it though.
Also the windows make checking for drones possible, some mating sites in Germany refuse Apideas, because they cannot check for drones, and they really do care about keeping the mating sites "clean"
EWB nucs Attachment 2867Attachment 2868Attachment 2869
I took these photos decades ago using 35 camera and have scanned them to digitise them to upload (apologises about the quality of the images)
Those images are of the old bibba nucs who tried to copy the EWK system and failed
This is what you want EWK nucs
http://www.honingraat.eu/en/mating-n...3-raam-dn.html
http://www.honingraat.eu/en/263-mating-nucs
One of the problems with mini-nucs is the absconding on a warm day. There must be a size of hive where the absconding stops. I have some mini-nucs which contain 5 of these frames and I had abscondings from these, so the size is still too small. Attachment 2938