BS Honey Bees Nuc Review
In this YouTube review, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey evaluates the BS Honey Poly Nuc 2‑in‑1 box, a poly‑hive nuc designed for beekeepers seeking flexibility and durability. Edwards begins by comparing the BS Honey nuc to the cheaper Maysmore poly nucs he previously used, noting the compatibility with existing Maysmore brood chambers. He details the roof’s 60 mm depth, 40 mm of insulation, and the high‑density 160 g/L injection‑molded poly construction, contrasting it with lower‑density and steam‑molded alternatives. The core innovation highlighted is the 2‑in‑1 split design: two separate colonies can be housed side‑by‑side within a single box, each with its own entrance and a Correx divider, facilitating queen rearing and split management. The integrated feeder features dual access slits and a removable fondant plug that converts to a syrup feeder for overwintering, offering versatile feeding options. Edwards discusses the top‑bee‑space configuration, the need to modify the built‑in poly runner to achieve consistent bee space throughout the box, and the seamless fit of Maysmore brood chambers. He critiques the Correx divider as flimsy, describing his own solution of fabricating 3‑4 mm plywood dividers for a tighter seal, and suggests a possible steel or ply alternative. The review concludes with a comparison to Payne’s poly nucs, a strong endorsement of the BS Honey design, a recommendation to contact Dan at BS Honeybees for purchases, and a call to subscribe to the channel.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey, and today we're going to take a look at the BS Honey Poly Nuc 2-in-1 box. Ow! I use a lot of these boxes and I've pretty much fallen in love with them. So I used to use the Maysmore Poly Nucs and I was relatively happy with them. I picked up maybe 15 or 20 of those about 3 years ago in their sales And they were very, very cheap indeed. As you know, I like to go for the cheapest boxes possible as long as the quality is there, and while I had the Maysmore boxes, I was very happy with them. They did everything I needed in a box, and I didn't really have a huge amount to compare them with. So when BS Honey put these boxes onto the market, I loved the fact that they were compatible with the upper brood chambers that I'd already bought for my Maysmore boxes, so I thought I'd give them a go, and I kind of went for it and bought a pallet in one go. And I'm so happy that I went for them, so much so that they're the only box that I will use now going forward. They have a number of features that poly boxes just don't have on the market now, so it'd be interesting to see the new iterations of poly boxes coming on the market to see if they steal some of the good features in here. So what I plan to do is take a look at the box, show you some of the features, show you what I like about it. So again, we'll start from the top and go down. So first things first is the roof, and there's not a huge amount to say about the roof other than it's actually quite thick. So you look at it there and it's about 60mm deep, and then there's the recess on the inside and that probably takes about 15mm down. So I think it's a good 40mm of insulation on top there. And when you're keeping bees, you want to keep them nicely insulated, but more important than that is you want the insulation sitting on the top of the hive. So BS Honey have taken that on board and they've produced a very neat roof. It has 4 imprints here and they are to match with the feet underneath, so when they stack there's just a nice place for the feet to go to kind of keep them, stop them rocking all over the place. I move my nucs around quite a lot. I like to take them up to the heather at the end of the season to get them fed up, so they stack quite nicely. It's very good for transportation. The other thing to note on here is that it's a very hard poly. So the manufacturers of poly tend to stick with 2 ratios or 2 kind of densities of poly. One is 100 grams per liter, which the Suyensi boxes are like. They're slightly more insulative, but they're a bit soft. And then there's 160 grams per liter, which BS Honeybees goes for and Abello goes for. And then you've got the 2 manufacturing different techniques that are used. So Abello, they use a steam molded system for their poly, and it comes out very, very different. And then BS Honeybees use an injection molded, but they maintain that higher density of poly. And I have to say, that's probably where I think the sweet spot is in the poly market. I like the fact that it's tough and solid, um, and that's what you get with 160 grams per liter. And I like the fact that they're relatively cheap compared to a steam molded variant. So that's pretty much it. One, one thing to note on the top of that, and this is a mistake that I made previous video showed you about painting my hives. I previously painted that hive when I first got it with a masonry paint. So I used, I think it's Santex masonry paint, and it— you paint it on and it looks great, and then within a couple of years it starts to flake off and you need to repaint them again. So when I came to repaint them, I painted it with spray paint, which was an oil-based paint sitting over a water-based paint, and I wasn't entirely sure how that was going to work, and it didn't work at all. So as you can see, it's really starting to flake off and looks unsightly, but it's actually only going back to the water-based coat underneath, so it's not a big issue. Like, I'm not fussed with what my hives look like as long as they're kind of inconspicuous and not directly back down to the poly. So that's the roof. Put that down there. Now, the biggest thing that I like about this nuc, probably the first thing that needs to be said, is the big change that they've made that goes against all the other poly nuc boxes that are on the market is that this is a 2-in-1 nuc. So instead of it just being a standard 6-frame nuc where you'd keep one colony, maybe add a second brood chamber and build them up, but ultimately it's one colony, one queen, this is a 2-in-1 box. So as you can see, you have an entrance on this side and you also have an entrance on this side. And then you have a Correx divider down the middle, which means you can have one colony here and one colony there. Now, this isn't revolutionary. People have been doing this for ages, kind of splitting up brood boxes, making queen castles, but it's just the first polyhive on the market that I've seen that does this— polynuc, sorry. And it adds a huge amount of flexibility for me personally. So what I do is I'll use this early in the season. When I'm making up splits, I'll make them up as maybe one frame of brood, one frame of stores, and then a frame of foundation or a frame of comb. And I'll put one into this side and one into that side, give them both a queen cell, put the lid back on, and just kind of leave them to it. I'll obviously add some feed at that point if the weather's not so good, and it means that I can come back, and when I'm checking for queens to be mated, I come back and I can have 2 queens that are mated. And the benefit for me on that system is that the queens are mated and they're sitting on the actual frames that I use within my apiary. I tried using mini mating nucs or Apidaires and I just really didn't get along with them very well, and what I didn't like was the transfer from the small mini mating frames into a bigger frame. So there's no denying it, this is a bigger drain on the resources within the apiary, but in my setup that works well. It means that I can kind of transfer them from one— effectively my mating nuc is that side or that side, and I can transfer them from one of them into a larger system quite easily, whether that's going into a hive or a full-size nuc. So that's, that's the biggest fundamental change with these Polynucs and this offering is that it's a 2-in-1 variant. Now I'm going to come back to this in a bit because this is the main issue I find with this. So going back to the feeder, that's the feeder that comes with it. And it's really well designed. Like, it's split in 2. So what that means is that you have access through this slit here and you have access through this slit here. So when you've got that split in the poly here and you've got your Correx divider in, the bees can come up one of the sides, either side, Into the pooled feeder. So you'd put your sugar syrup in there and they can both come up, have as much syrup as they want, but they're not coming into contact with each other. So there's no killing of queens or virgins or anything like that. You've got one box, but they're very well compartmentalized into 2 separate sections. So really nice feeder. But the big thing, and this is what really sets it apart from everywhere, everywhere else, and I know the guys there did a huge amount of research into this, But is this— It's the plug. And the reason they put the plug there is that when I come to overwinter, I don't tend to overwinter on a 3x3, so I won't overwinter 2 colonies at once in here. Um, I tried that once and it just didn't go very well. I found they just weren't big enough to keep their, um, strength over winter. But I know some people do that. The big thing is that you can take the fondant block out like that Sorry, yeah, take the block out like that and put a huge chunk of fondant in there. So I'll show you on some of my overwintering colonies at the moment. I'll just kind of cut that in the way that I do that, and what that means is that directly over the center of the cluster, they have got full access into here, into the fondant, and you can get a really good-sized slab in there. And the bees really, really like it. So once you're finished feeding fondant for the winter, You come back in, you pop your plug in, and then it turns it back into a syrup feeder. So it's just a really nice neat design. It means that you can feed one colony fondant, you can feed one colony syrup, and then if you want to split it, you can feed 2 colonies syrup. So yeah, there's a really well thought out, well designed feeder. If I was gonna be ultra critical, I would like to see a way in which they could put 2 plugs in so you could feed 2 overwintering, 3 pre-frame nucs fondant, but it's a bit of a design challenge because you don't really have enough room to do it. I've seen some people make a few mods on how to do that, so maybe in the next iteration of this they can solve that problem. But it is very difficult for polyhive manufacturers with these kind of very small iterative changes. It doesn't warrant them going and changing the mould, and I'm always happy just to kind of take them as they come and then make the amendments myself. So the fact that I don't overwinter these on a 3-frame format, I'm, I'm very happy with them. Wouldn't change anything apart from one thing that I'll come to in a bit. So that's the feeder. Then we're into the box, and again, you can kind of— if you get a close-up there, you can see this is what the outside of it looks like. So it's kind of like a dappled green effect and all of that. That's the 160 grams per liter poly. It has the dividing hole in there, so that's where your Correx divider fits in. So you can get a nice tight fit there. And then at the bottom you have your open mesh floor, and that's split so there's kind of no transfer between the 2 colonies, and that's pretty solid as well. These are the feet that fit nicely into the roof, and that's pretty much it to say about this box here, other than it sits on its own inbuilt plastic runners. So instead of having clip-in ones— Sorry, it doesn't sit on plastic runners, it sits on poly runners. So these are built into the mould, and it's a top bee space nuc, and I really like top bee space. Although all of my equipment's on bottom bee space, if there was a good quality top space poly, I would very much consider moving over to it. It's definitely easier to work with. So I find when I compare these to my Maysmoor nucs, it's a bit frustrating, some of them being on top space and some of them being on bottom bee space. So this is on top, top bee space. So when you put the lids on, you have your nice gap, you don't really crush any bees. Now another thing to mention is when I'm overwintering, I always overwinter on a double nuc format, so that's 6 frames over 6 frames. I like to build up the nucs and get them really, really as strong as possible, up to like 9, 10 frames of brood going into winter, and then let them hammer the syrup and hammer the heather and really build up a nice big strong colony. Like, it's the nucs that I overwinter, they're not that far off the colonies that I overwinter. in a single box. They've actually got 2 additional frames in there that they can make use of. So what is great with these is that the Maysmor brood chambers that they sell are compatible with this. So they've obviously designed it that way, they just plonk straight on. So that's a BS honey nuc, sorry, honeybee nuc, and that's a Maysmor chamber. But what it does require is it requires a very simple mod. So these are bottom bee space and that's top bee space. So if you put them together, what you get is you get bottom bee space at the top, a big double bee space in the middle, and then at the bottom you still have a single bee space. But that's just the way that the hive's designed, and I didn't realize that first year round. So what I ended up doing was having it like that, no bee space at the top, so the feeder went on, crushed bees, double bee space here where they built loads of brace comb. So when I come to try and open it up in the winter, In the spring, it was a complete and utter mess. So I changed all of that and made a mod, which is a very simple mod. So there used to be on here just a little poly runner, and all I did was just chisel that off and I turned that into a top bee space chamber. So it still fits on the same. So the whole configuration now, the whole poly nuc including the brood chamber, is all top bee space. So I have a top bee space at the top. I have A single bee space in the middle and then a single bee space at the bottom. So that works perfectly, and then it's fully compatible with the feeder as well. Now, I have one serious kind of grumble with this, and I wasn't aware of it until kind of 18 months in, and that is the Correx divider. Now, the reason that this wasn't in the hive is that I've chucked them away. Like, They're just not very good, and what it is, is the design's perfect, but they're just not strong enough. But as you can see, I mean, it's kind of wibbling all over the place. The central portion there is pretty strong, but these end bits, they are— and I don't know whether this is just me, I don't know, it'd be useful if other people could comment, see if they have the same issue— but these side bits, there's just not enough mass there to give you the strength to push through the propolis and any of the kind of other bits throughout the hive to get it as a nice tight fit. So I'll show you what I mean. It goes in and then it sits proud there. So I'm like trying to push it in and I just— it's still sitting a little bit proud. Whereas on that side it's gone in all right. And to be honest, that's probably one of the better ones. I've given that a bit of a clean to kind of show for the demonstration here. So Luckily, it's no major problem to resolve at all. All you do is just get rid of that, and I build them now out of ply. So I use like a 3 or 4mm ply. I just cut them to shape, and then when I put them in, I've got that strength to kind of push through and get kind of a positive seal all the way around. So I've made a few of those. I'll make the rest of them over winter. They fit neatly in the slot in the side. So when you're not using them, there's a nice storage space to keep them on the side over here. And again, I can't get it in properly because there's probably some gunk or something around the corner, whereas with the wood I can kind of get them in nice and tight. So there is one grumble with this hive, and that is I'm not, not a fan of the Correx divider, and I wish they looked into something a little bit different, maybe just providing them with a steel, a thin steel seal one or a thin piece of ply. I know these are cheap, but I'd pay an extra couple of quid if they, if they put them in with a ply divider instead, or something else. I'm open to other options. So that's about it for the review today. Like I say, this— I really, really do like these Polynucs. There's nothing else in the market I think that comes close to them. They are very different to the Payne's Polynucs. So the Payne's Poly Nuc, you have the inbuilt feeder, which I've never really got on with. I know a lot of people have chopped out that inbuilt feeder and turned it into an 8-frame nuc, and I'm not really sure what the— if an 8-frame nuc's really worth it. I get the argument that you have a bigger colony, but I can have a bigger colony by adding my additional brood chamber and turning it up to 12 frames. The 8-frame nuc is just a bit too close to a 10-frame box, 10-frame poly box, for me, so I don't see the benefit in doing it. Um, so that is about it. I wouldn't change anything on these apart from the Correx divider. Be happy if they offered a ply alternative, but quite happy to make my own. And I'll be ordering a lot more of these in the future. So if you are interested in buying these, speak to Dan at BS Honeybees. He's always happy to kind of discuss his polyhives. I understand they might have a couple of new offerings coming out in the near future, so keep an eye on their website. And that's about it. So thanks again for watching. I hope you're enjoying the reviews. Um, please subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow us on Twitter, like us on Instagram, like us on Facebook, and I'll see you next time.
