Michael Palmers overwintered nucs

[steadybrook]

Does Michael Palmer over winter his nucs  / brood factories using 4 over 4 over 4 , 12 frames  or 4 over 4,  8 frames ?

[Michael Bush]

He plays it by ear.  As the nucs build up he adds space.  He used to overwinter a lot of them in four frames.  He started doing his splits earlier and most were building up to 4 over 4.  I'm sure some build up to 4 over 4 over 4.  I can't say what the "norm" is with his present methods, but when I was there several years ago most were going into winter with 4 over 4.

[steadybrook]

Great Thanks Ill try that.

[Mark Smith]

Does he use standard 5 frame nucs and run 4 frames in them or are they special 4 frame nucs?

[Michael Bush]

More something like this: http://www.betterbee.com/nuc-boxes/dnbody-divided-deep-for-nuc.asp  Though when I was there he had a division board feeder in it instead of just a one by divider.  The bottom would looke like this: http://www.betterbee.com/nuc-boxes/dnbb-double-nuc-bottom-board.asp the nucs on top would look like this: http://www.betterbee.com/nuc-boxes/dns-double-nuc-super.asp with a plastic "burlap" feed bag for an inner cover and then a telescopic cover over that.  You can pull the telescopic cover and peel back the plastic over the nuc you want to examine and even remove the top box of the side you want to examine without disrupting the other side.