Hello All Can anybody say approximately how many bees are in a cup full of bees in the parlance of Apideas?. Or putting the question another way can we relate the cup full of bees to bees covering frames of say National or Commercial hives. I am going to use Apideas shortly to try to raise queens. I have heard some negative comments on these devices but now that I have purchased two of them I may as well see what they can do. I got to thinking about what happens when the queen is mated and laying. Presumably she will have to be introduced to her new abode in much the same way as a travelled queen, using a Butler Cage or equivalent. And of course she must be found beforehand and placed in the cage. What I was wondering about is, what is wrong with having some tiny little nucs with maybe only two standard frames. These would effectively IMO duplicate the Apidea, as all you require is a frame or two of food (no brood of any description), - in my case British nationals or commercials, and having as many bees in there are in an Apidea (hence my question at the beginning). We then have the queen on a normal frame in a nuc which most texts suggest makes introduction far easier. Any thoughts on the subject please? Sincerely Tom Barrett 49 South Park, Foxrock Dublin 18 Ireland Tel + 353 1 289 5269 Fax + 353 1 289 9940