In this episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey reviews the Mazemore interchangeable‑component poly nuc system. He explains how the system differs from the earlier single‑molded 6‑frame poly nuc by offering separate, interchangeable parts: a floor, roof, Miller feeder, and a 6‑frame extension box that converts a 6‑frame nuc into a 12‑frame nuc. Edwards walks through each component, noting design details such as the integrated poly frame runners, the new roof that accommodates fondant feeding, and the separate feeder for syrup. He highlights the modularity’s practical benefits—easy upgrades, cost savings (≈£10‑£15 per added part versus buying a whole new nuc), and flexibility for splits and expansions. He also points out drawbacks: a non‑standard entrance that lacks a quick‑close wheel disc, and an unnecessary landing board that adds bulk and reduces truck‑stacking efficiency, which he removes with a hot knife. Edwards discusses compatibility with BS Honeybees boxes, explaining the bee‑space differences (bottom vs. top) and how the floor can work with both after a simple modification. Feeding tips are provided: use the Miller feeder for syrup, and for fondant place it directly on the frames and cover with the roof. Throughout, he emphasizes that he purchased the equipment himself, offers an honest recommendation, and concludes with a call to subscribe.
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Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Today I'm going to review the Maysmore interchangeable component poly nuc. So I've done previous videos showing you the 6-frame poly nuc, the previous version that they had. I've done a review now showing you the new updated version with the new roof, and what I'm showing you now is the interchangeable component version. that Mazemore do, just to give you the full suite of all the different versions that Mazemore produce in a poly nuc format. So on this side here, we've got the standard new version 6-frame poly nuc from Mazemore. You've got a separate roof, a separate feeder, and then everything's molded in one. Done a separate review of that. I'll stick a link up and you can take a look at the review for this product. Now what Mazemore do, which is something that I really do like, is that they give you the ability to add additional brood boxes on top of that 6-frame Polynuc there. But also what they do is they give you the ability to build your own configuration of nuc by adding separate components, and I really, really like that. So instead of saying you have to buy the 6-frame Polynuc that comes with the, the molded piece at the bottom, the feeder, and the roof, they say you can buy a separate roof. So if you want to upgrade all of your old hives, you can upgrade it with this new roof. Gives you the ability to feed fondant. Really nice design touch. You can buy a separate poly feeder. So we've spoken about this previously. This is the, the Miller feeder for the 6-frame poly nuc, same as you get on that one there. Now you've got to bear with me because this box here is broken, although it doesn't look like it is. I need to fix this one. It's the only one that I've got available to do this demo on. But that is a Maysmore 6-frame extension box that fits onto that nuc to turn it from a 6-frame poly nuc into a 12-frame poly nuc. So you can buy that separately from Maysmore as well. And then to complete the compatible pieces, they sell a separate floor. So I really do like it, and why I like it is that I can turn my 6-frame poly nucs into 12-framers by adding this box And then in the season, I can just add a floor and a roof, and I can make a really easy split. I could do a walkaway split, I can add a queen, I can effectively turn a 12-frame nuc into 2 6-frame nucs instantly like that. A lot of the other ones, it's a little bit more difficult to do that, and you'd need to buy a whole other poly nuc. On this one, you just need the floor and you just need the roof, and if you want to get the feeder as well, you can. If you buy all 3, you save a few pounds. If you're just buying the floor and the roof, you end up saving about £10 or £15 on the cost of a whole additional nuc from Maysmoor. So the costs do stack up. So the floor, we'll go through this one by one starting at the bottom. The floor is pretty much identical to the, the standard molded box unit apart from the fact that there's a big cut and a rebate in the middle. There's 2 things I really don't like about this though. Now the first one is that the entrance to this is, is some weird contraption like that. So it gives you your single B space and that obviously stays in there like that, but it's difficult to block it up. It's not like a Nuke wheel where you've got the option to kind of slot it round, and I can see why it's difficult to do that because you essentially need— Sorry, that's broken. You need to put it on the face of here, but it's just a little bit annoying that I like to have the nuc wheel. I like to have the easy option to close things up, so it's a little bit of a down point for me. That the second one, and I really don't like this and I will be chopping this off straight away, is this landing board. Now I appreciate some people like landing boards, they can see the bees easily landing on them and going up, but in my experience the bees are not fussed about landing boards. All this is for me is excess material that I don't want, and it's excess room in my pickup truck where I can't stack things as efficiently. And the difference of that, if I go 3 deep in the pickup truck, means that I can't get a whole additional double-sided row in. So it's the difference between getting an additional 6 nucs in my pickup truck. So that's coming off straight away. I just get a hot knife and chop that down. Don't need that in my opinion. However, I love the fact that it's a separate component and it's a floor that I can use and add other components to. Really small to store and just kind of helps with the flexibility of my operation. So you have your floor like that, then you just take your standard brood extension box. That's a Maysmoor one there, although it's painted in the standard Black Mountain Honey style. So you can put your brood box directly on the floor like that. Really nice fit, good solid fit, big thick rebates, all fits together really, really well. And essentially what you've got there is the bottom piece from your 6-frame single moulded unit. You've got enough place to put your 6 frames, and you've got your floor, and you've got a landing board. The only real difference is you've got the landing board, which I don't like, and you've not got the disc to close the nuc up effectively. What you do have again in the middle here is you have your integrated poly runners, which I like. It keeps the frames up nice and high and it's really easy for getting those frames out. So they've continued that with the Brood Extension Boxes. They're all bottom bee space with an integrated poly frame runner. Now, if you're using— quick tip for you here— if you're using a BS Honeybees nuc and you want to use the Maysmore Extension Boxes, they work and they're fully compatible with one big caveat. With the BS Honey Box main unit, but the issue is, is that the BS Honey Box is a top bee space and these are a bottom bee space. So what you get is a double bee space where the 2 frames meet up on a 12-frame nuc and they backfill it with comb. So what I've actually done on this box here is I've taken that off, I've just chiseled off the frame runner, and I've turned this one here into a top bee space box. Now luckily, the, the compatible floor with this gives you a double B space anyway. So this floor will work with this version of a box as it is in a top B space, or if you haven't messed around with it and it's as it, as it comes from Mazemore, as a bottom B space box. So it works both ways. So luckily I haven't wrecked all my boxes and this won't work with this new box. And then the other components, they're just the same as on the previous review. Miller feeder goes on like that, put your syrup inside it and feed the bees syrup. If you want to do fondant, you take that one off, you've got your bees there, big cluster, put your fondant on top like that, and then you just put this box over the top and it's got sufficient depth on it now to enable you to feed fondant. So it's not like a BS Honeybees one where you pop the silicone plug out and feed fondant in the same box, which is a design I really do like. It's separate, separate boxes for separate designs. This is just for feeding syrup only, although you can bodge it a bit to get fondant in there, but I wouldn't recommend it. Leave that one for syrup and then feed your fondant directly on the frames. So you just pop your fondant on there like that and then put your box over the top. And then that's how I would feed fondant on this colony. So there's a lot to like about this design. I love the fact that you can buy the separate units. Say you've got one of these 6-frame Polynucs and you break the feeder, you can go to Maysmore, buy a separate feeder from them, and they'll sell it to you for a reasonable price. They don't force you to buy a whole unit. I really do like that. I love the updated roof. It's a really good tweak to the design. They've kept pretty much everything the same on that old design and added the roof, and it solved my main gripe that I had with it when I did the previous review. I love the fact that you can buy things individually. So you can buy the roof, you can buy the brood box, you can really fit it to your exact specification. I hate the landing board, but it's a really easy, quick fix for me. That'll take me 10 seconds. I'll chop it off and there's no kind of issue with the functionality of the hive going forward. The only thing that's slightly frustrating is the fact that there's no wheel disc, and it's— I do get why it's quite difficult to get a wheel disc into this design. But it's just a little bit more difficult to close the hive up when I'm moving it around. Overall though, I really like both of these versions of the Mazemore Polynucs. I'll buy them again. You can get them direct from Mazemore. I paid for all of these myself. I've not got them as a freebie to do a review. These are all my own kind of honest thoughts, and I can recommend the product. So if you're looking for a Polynuc, I recommend these products. They're good products. It's not to say that it's my favorite Polynuc, and it's not to say the one that I would recommend over the other ones. But if you're interested in going down the Mazemore route, I can definitely vouch for them and say they're good products to use and they're a good company to work with. So that's it for the video. I hope you've enjoyed this one. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
