hey,
Winter nucs - stack or put on strong hives? That's the question. I'm in southern NY, the winters are mild, from my upbringing in northern NY. We rarily get below 0 deg. F. history of hives so far, the first year, wraped hives, second year no wrap - all hves survived. So,.. up state we winter nucs over strong hives, down here I'm thinking I can winter them on each other. reason being with limited hive with witch to winter them on I will need to manage location which is a major pain.
thoughts?
Stacking hives next to each other or on top of each other allows them to share warmth which helps conserve stores. If you're going to winter more than one nuc I would cut a board to fit vertically between the frames on a 10 frame hive and winter 2 nucs in one box.
I keep trying to overwinter nucs. If I ever get the hang of it I'll let you know. Meanwhile, here are the mistakes I've made. Putting them on top of a strong hive with any kind of screen (I've done from a full double screen board to a double screen on an inner coverhole). Condensation was the problem. I've stacked them up but the nucs on the bottom don't get any heat. I've covered them all with a heater set at 50 F and this worked ok, but I had trouble with the feeder jars leaking and it wasn't a good test, since it was a mild winter.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnucs.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/ApartmentNucsWintering.JPG
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/ApartmentNucsWrappedInFoam.jpg