A friend and fellow beekeeper in Alabama gave me a medium frame nuc box yesterday. I intend to use it for swarm catching in the Spring, however I don't uses medium hive bodies. Previous swarms have moved into a deep box I also use, and when I'm lucky, the queen begins laying. Therein is the problem. If I catch a swarm and the queen begins laying, I'm stuck with brood in medium frames.
My thoughts were to move those medium frames into a deep box, with 5 more drawn deep frames, and after the queen begins to lay in those deep frames, and the brood in the medium is capped, move those capped-brood-medium-frames above a queen excluder into a medium super with five more medium frames. This will allow them to hatch without being resown with new eggs.
I've not attempted this before, but assume the hatched bees will travel below the queen excluder upon emerging. The nurse bees attending the brood will also have access to the brood during the incubation period...assuming they won't abandon the brood for the bottom deep hivebody.
Anyone deal with this issue before? Any flaw in my plan? It may end up being a hassle, more than I want to deal with. :cry:
As always, appreciate any insight you give.
bb
I have several deep boxes with one or two medium frames in them. The bees just draw natural comb down to the correct depth and stop. They will not draw down to the bottom board. I've never tried it in any box above. They may attach the comb to the lower frames, I don't know. Some of the medium frames in my deep hive bodies have been there for years.
I have a couple also in upper boxes. They've attached them all to the lower frames. Not sure why I don't learn my lesson.
I use all medium frame boxes but my nucs are almost all deeps. If I leave the swarm in the nuc more than a week I will have drawn comb almost the same depth as a deep frame. Sometimes they draw it straight but usually not. I just cut it out and rubber band it in a medium frame. During the transition from deep to medium, I had lots of medium frames between the deeps and I just left them in the hive that way until I switched the box to a medium. If you put medium frames between deep ones they will draw them out nicely.
Jim
Ah, the lure of free equipment and the need to find a way to use it! IMHO, the gift of one medium nuc box is a bad reason to go mixing up frame sizes - I bet you'll find that the ensuing headaches are really not worth it. Save yourself a lot of hassle and buy a deep nuc box - the $12 will be worth more than all the extra time and energy you'll spend trying to fix things or figure out where to go next, or...!
Quote from: tjc1 on August 23, 2016, 10:43:07 PM
Ah, the lure of free equipment and the need to find a way to use it! IMHO, the gift of one medium nuc box is a bad reason to go mixing up frame sizes - I bet you'll find that the ensuing headaches are really not worth it. Save yourself a lot of hassle and buy a deep nuc box - the $12 will be worth more than all the extra time and energy you'll spend trying to fix things or figure out where to go next, or...!
...I don't know what I was thinking. :embarassed: ...overthought that one for sure.
I'm strapped for cash, but I think I can swing $12 for the deep box. The inner cover, lid and bottom board will fit the same. I saw the same price online after I posted this.
Thanks for bringing me back to sanity. :wink:
bb
I use all the equipment I can get my hands on regardless of size. It will complicate things somewhat to have different sizes.
Are you from Alabama? If so where? btw.., it'll serve you well to update your profile and put your general location in. Most bee keeping questions are location specific.
One way of accomodating 2 different frame sizes in one box is to make-up space-occupying boxes to fit under an array of the shorter frames - as in the Layens 'A grenier' format (which translates to 'Hay Loft' or 'Granary'), thusly:
(http://i68.tinypic.com/2dt569w.png)
Not ideal, I grant you - but it's one way of dealing with the difficulty.
LJ
Just popped outside to take a shot of my own 'Layens-style' hive conversion (which takes both 9" and 12" deep frames) - but not yet commisioned, as you can see:
(http://i63.tinypic.com/24p9t9k.jpg)
I've put the second space-ocupying box into shot, but in practice I expect both boxes to be located at the ends.
LJ
Quote from: tjc1 on August 23, 2016, 10:43:07 PM
Save yourself a lot of hassle and buy a deep nuc box
He could make a three inch shim out of scrap wood and not have to buy anything. A swarm that would pick out a nuc box wouldn't seem to be that valuable. Now make it a medium nuc and it seems even less.
Thanks, LJ - That's interesting.
Quote from: Acebird on August 25, 2016, 08:23:18 AM
Quote from: tjc1 on August 23, 2016, 10:43:07 PM
Save yourself a lot of hassle and buy a deep nuc box
He could make a three inch shim out of scrap wood and not have to buy anything. A swarm that would pick out a nuc box wouldn't seem to be that valuable. Now make it a medium nuc and it seems even less.
Bolichsbees
Here's another simple and easy idea. All at is made out of plywood.
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=mannlake&Screen=SRCH&sType=1&Search=nuc+introduction+board
For one box I would go with screwing shims on.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :smile:
Wow, looks like you will need to cut down all your deeps and frames to fit the new box;) Make a 3 inch shim out of whatever is laying around and give the box a good coat of paint. Half of my boxes have been either cut down or shimmed, the bees don't care. Keep it simple
I know where I live you could make a 5 frames medium nuc. And you can sell it for the same price as a 5 frame deep nuc. It would not last long on Craigslist in the springtime. Just an idea so you can get some cash flow.
Of course to spend on more bee equipment :wink:
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :smile: