# General beekeeping > Everything and anything >  Mini-plus method of Economy Colony Establishment

## prakel

I'll add photos to this thread as I progress.

This may be of interest to people wanting to increase their colony count in a cheap and economical fashion.

Over the last couple of years some of the regular posters here have discussed the mini-plus hives in some depth. One of the recurring themes has been the ease with which they can be overwintered, although I'm in the south, there seems to be general agreement that they do winter well farther north too.

Last winter while sorting through various bits of redundant bee kit I found myself with a fair collection of five frame BS nuc boxes which I'd more or less side-lined over recent years. Deciding that it makes more sense to have bees in them than not I started thinking about methods of stocking them economically. It was at this stage that I hit on the idea of sitting the mini-plus frames inside the BS frames (I quickly transitioned to cutting the combs out and tying them into the  BS frames so that I could get the mini_plus frames back into use after a spring clean). One thing which I've learnt from this little experiment is that when tying the comb into the larger frame it's far more efficient to rest it on the bottom bar rather than to hang it from the top bar, the reason being that the bees are driven to fill a void between the top of the comb and the underside of the topbar as a matter of urgency but can drag their heels if the task is to extend the comb down to the bottom bar; very important when initially dealing with unwired combs.

The initial transfers (I'll be doing some more I think) took place during the first two weeks of May, no extra feed has been necessary but we have had some good weather here and an unprecedented showing of wild mustard in great swathes across the local landscape now being followed by an osr/bean/comfrey cover crop within easy range of the nucs. Almost all are now on five full combs.

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## Black Comb

How many millilitres of bees do you use for the initial fill of the mini plus?

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## prakel

Hi, I've not actually had to start one from scratch since the initial couple which I purchased back in 2006(?) the beauty here is that they become a self sustaining unit, even the frames now emptied of comb have been put back onto other overwintered mini_plus boxes to be redrawn/laid out before once more being split off with new cells.

But, to be specific with regard to your question, they got a shake of bees; we don't work in such fine detail as measuring in mm or by specific volume, gut-feel drives my own beekeeping unfortunately. I know that others here have referenced the amount of bees which they use so maybe one or two of them will offer a more technical answer as to the possibilities. 

Having extra overwintered boxes to repopulate the empty frames needn't be an expense issue either -most of mine are now of a home made variety with the primary material being OSB3 alongside pallet wood with a single slab of kingspan type material as a roof (thickness depends entirely on what I've most recently salvaged from skips etc) quite a few of these boxes were overwintered 2013/14 in very exposed cliff top sites subject to the full brunt of the storms which we were subject to. Further north a tea-cosey kind of cover could be used I suppose.

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