I have some five frame nucs comming soon and one of those is replacing my winter dead hive. I have all the frames (20)from the dead out, top box has some with lots of honey some with just a little and then all of the bottom box frames that are pretty much just drawn comb. Two nucs show on the 20th and one nuc on the 28th. How would you set up the nucs in a 10 frame box?
thanks for your help. bob
Put the five frames in the middle. dole out the honey in frames and put next to the brood. take the empty frames and add water to sugar till it will make a paste and put it in the empty drawn combs and fill the boxes around the five frames of brood. Have the sugar paste ready in the boxes where you are going to hive the nucs so you can just drop them in. Easy as pie. It is what I would do any way
Split your drawn comb and honey between the nucs as evenly as possible. The nucs will probably have a frame or two of feed. They will need some empty comb next to the brood frames for the queen to lay in. Here (warm temps already) my honey frames would be on the outside my drawn comb next to the brood. Feed 1:1 syrup until you feel they are adequately feed or the flow starts whichever comes first. Add extra boxes drawn comb or foundation as needed to prevent crowding.
This is here for me in the south. If your temps dictate otherwise I am sure someone will speak up and correct me soon ;)
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I do not know how cold your hive yard is. Day temps are quite good 60-70 F but winds are very bad.
At night 50 F
http://www.weatherforyou.com/places/us/mi/southwest+michigan+regional/wxn560358.html (http://www.weatherforyou.com/places/us/mi/southwest+michigan+regional/wxn560358.html)[/url]
It is a shock to the colony if you put 5 frame into 10 frame box. Lots of brood will catch cold and die.
Put an extra movable wall into the hive and move when colony grows.
Keep ventilation small, about 5 cm x 1 cm
(http://bee.freesuperhost.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/tiny.jpg)
Excellent post 8-). I've been converting all of my ten frame supers down to 8 frame by creating movable and insulated follower boards from the #1 and #10 frames.
thomas
hopefully by the 20th we will see a warming trend!!! I'm sick of the cold and the bees are too!
We had snow, sleet, rain, thunder and lightning yesterday here in Michigan!
Me and the bees are looking for a break too.