Minor disagreement on the 'few thousand'**, since the update I'm staking nearly monthly with a balance of about 1.5K and another comparable miner (similar RAC, wallet running same times) is staking every 2-3 weeks or so with a balance of 2-3K. This suggests lower balances could stake within the 6 month timeframe.

**But not the 'reliably'. Need more data! :)