my first time with bees, starting with 4 nucs,

[beesNme]

hello all

this is my first year starting with bees, we are starting with 4 nucs, 2 of them are Russians and the other 2 will be Italians,  Russians will be in 8 frame mediums and Italians will be in 10 frame deeps.  i was thinking of alternating foundation and foundationless frames in 2 hives to see how it goes,the other 2 hives will be full foundation.  also i was wondering how far apart should i space the hives where 2 are Russian and other 2 are Italian.  i have read all i can and joined a bee club in my area thats where the Russians are coming from.  but would like the forums advice as well.


thanks

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

congrats on getting started. nice setup starting off. as far as how far to space them, how far 'can' you space them? how far 'do you want to' space them? They can actually be fairly close to each, actually you can set all the hives on top of each other even with the entrances facing different directions.
I'd say 2-3 ft minimal though, and the only reason I do that is so I have room to walk completely around ea. if I feel like it, but once more not required at all.

I like my hives at a angle facing the morning sun personally, and not blocking each others sun.

As a new beek, I hope someone has convinced you to have a lot of extra boxes and frames around for when you'll need em, and you can also save on foundation first off by not using it at all, but second off, but cutting lengthwise each foundation to about 2" and just attaching that. the bees will draw it out fine. course if you want to regress their size, then you will have to use small cell foundation.enjoy and welcome.

[OldMech]

   I recomend letting them draw foundation first, then sliding the foundation-less frames in between the drawn comb.  It is the most sure fire way to insure perfect foundation-less frames.  75% of my hives will draw nice comb where I want it, the rest will do odd things with it that baffles me,,  IE; Drawing a foundation-less frame straight down half way, then BULGING to one side or the other. Foundation-less is easy to fix.. cut out the bad spots and put it back in to let them try again...
   Foundation-less comb when new is soft, so use care when looking, dont flip it around as much as you would foundation until it has a little time to harden.
   I like my foundation-less.. mostly because I am a cheap bugger...
    Some info on foundation-less and making foundation-less.. using it starts not quite half way down the page.
   http://outyard.weebly.com/frames.html

[Steel Tiger]

 All the frames in my hives are foundationless. As long as the hives are level and they have some sort of guide on the frame (popsicle sticks, turning the wedge and gluing in, or as Better.to.Bee said, cut a strip of foundation and attach it to the top of the frame), they'll build straight comb most of the time. When I have empty frames that I want them to fill, I check every few days in case they decide to make wonky comb. It's much easier to fix when you catch it early.
Good luck with your bees.

[beesNme]

thanks for the replies, i will probably space them about 5 ft apart, i never thought about facing each entrance in a differant direction . i was reading that my russains would probably  not be pure ? , that kinda is a bummer.  i just made 2 5 frame nuc boxes to make a back up queen but i have alot more to learn on that one, thanks again for the comments it is a great help

[GSF]

BeesNme; I've been keeping bees less than a year now. I split, got some packages, and someone gave me a swarm. I had them spread apart pretty good. Then I kept looking at the set up with the hives here there and everywhere. So I am in the process of closing in the ranks. I took five hives and I have them on some 2x8s. The one in the middle has the most space between hives and it's only about 8 to 10 inches. Easier to work with. In the future I'll move the other three hives to a similar set up as soon as I can figure out where I want them.

When you ask some beekeepers how far should they be apart they'll reply in inches. They way I have the five hives makes it look more organized.

[10framer]

gary, you may change your mind about that distance.  my stands hold two hives and have less than a hives width between the them and i absolutely don't like it.  i like to work them from the side with the sun at my back and i can only do that with one of them.

[beesNme]

gsf and 10 framer  i wish i had your warmer weather. i can only hope we have a mild winter lol.  on spacing i was thinking if one hive had a problem a few feet would maybe help. it will be a good learning experiance and hopefully mother nature will be kind on them