Qeustion about making a bottom board for my nuc boxes and dado cut a 3/4" entrance

Can I nail a board to the bottom of a nuc that's a little longer than the box and dado cut a 3/4" hole in the bottom of a nuc box? Do I even need the landing board? Is there a draw back to this idea. I plan on moving them into 10 frame equipment when their filled out enough.

Thank you for your ideas?

Mike

Easy and effective. While the landing board is nice the bees will figure it out if it's absent. I'd leave it. And it's even easier to just drill a 1" hole in the front but if you have a separate dado tablesaw or router set up then go ahead.

few trees have landing boards. Makes you wonder how they survived!

None of my nuc boxes have landing boards, and they work just fine. I just drill a 7/8" entrance hole in the front of the box.

I'm about to make a bunch of nucs, and for the bottom boards I'm going to use 19/32" plywood and attach it with good exterior screws right to the bottom of the nuc boxes, no glue just in case I ever need to pull the bottom board off for some reason. I will seal the edges of the plywood real good with something, don't know exactly what yet, before I paint the outside surfaces. I'll drill a 3/4" hole in the front of the nuc for an entrance. John

Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKlrZv5lKgM

If you attach a plywood bottom directly to the box bottom when moving frames ya crush a lot of bees. Add a 3/8-inch spacer to the perimeter of the bottom board. Landing boards collect water and if not tilted a bit it runs into the hive.

Thank you all for your input. This is were I'm at now. Should I shim the bottom? If I had it to do all over I would have shimmed and used an removable entrance reducer. How long can I leave a nuc completely closed up while I'm moving it?

I really like the video. Looks like you can winter small nucs on bigger hives for warmth.

Here's pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/11557...55532450605729

You can and I do.
I overwinter July splits in them.

If you are going to permanently attach the floorboard to the bottom box, I suggest simply making the bottom box 3/8-3/4" taller than normal...shorter if used only in summer, deeper if you are going to overwinter in them.