A small hive box designed to hold a miniature honeybee colony, typically fitting three to five standard frames. Beekeepers use these reduced-volume boxes for rearing queens, splitting strong colonies to prevent swarming, or overwintering small clusters of bees that would struggle to heat a full-sized hive.
Heard on the job
Move those queen cells into a nucleus box so the virgins can emerge and mate without fighting.
Also heard as
- nuc box
- mating nuc