Can I make use of the Nuc Boxes?

[TonyGotaTruck]

I got two Nuc,s. Moved the bees to the hives on separate properties. All is well.

What can I do with the Nuc Boxes? Any chance of starting a colony in them for later in year or maybe next year?

What are you doing with your Nuc Boxes?

(This is to much fun)

[hpm08161947]

Savem... you will use them for your splits next year... who knows.. maybe this year.

[beedeetee]

A nuc box is probably about my fourth or fifth most useful tool. You can use them to:

Put a frame with the queen on it in the nuc box when you want to keep track of her while making nuc, splitting, requeening, etc.

When you find swarm cells, you can put the old queen and some brood in it to "swarm for them".

You can put a small hive in one while you requeen to keep the space that they need to protect small.

[Birdman]

Use them again. As a new beek you will find that you never have enough of anything.

[fish_stix]

Better get some more; you'll need them. Build them yourself: search for DCoates Easy Nuc plans.

[sqkcrk]

What kind of nuc boxes are they?

[Omie]

What kind of nuc boxes are they?

Right, if they are merely nuc shipping boxes made from discarded plywood with the tops and bottoms stapled on like a crate, they won't be great for having bees actually live in them, without some alterations and improvements. Good to keep if you have to sell some frames or just transport them somewhere though.

If they are 'real' nuc boxes with BB's and removable tops and entrances, then that's great- use them to make and house splits!

[TonyGotaTruck]

I think they are recycled hives. Not the most sound boxes ever but ok in a pinch.

[sqkcrk]

You can reuse them. Sometimes, as bkprs, we use anything that will hold frames. I have ssen really good crops of honey come out of really poor equipment.

In what State is Tallapoosa County?

[Michelle Hartman]

Are most nuc frames built to fit deeps? I ordered a beginner's Hive kit with two deeps and two medium supers. I am assuming the nuc I ordered will have deep frames. But I am thinking I want to forge ahead with all medium 8 frames after this initial purchase. I am a woman in her 50's. Comments?

[beedeetee]

My mother-in-law (in her 80's) uses deeps for brood and mediums for honey (all 10 frame equipment). It's true that she can't actually life a full medium off the the hive in one piece though.

[Ben Brewcat]

Nucs are more useful than you'd imagine... even if you only use it to keep a "spare" laying queen around for emergencies. Splits, breeders, you can always use a nuc in your back pocket.

[Michael Bush]

What Nucs are Good For:

Splits You can put a frame of brood with eggs a frame of emerging brood a couple of frames of honey and pollen and put them in a nuc and shake another couple of frame of bees from some brood in and the bees will raise a queen and you will have a new hive. When they fill the nuc, move them to a standard box.

Artificial swarm. If the bees are trying to swarm, do as above except add the old queen to the nuc and take out all but one or two of the swarm cells in the hive.

Making queens from swarm cells. As above you can do a split to get them to make a queen, but also when they are trying to swarm you can as in the first (splits) and put a queen cell in each nuc with the brood and honey and bees and they will hatch the queen and you can use them for requeening or selling or whatever you like. Of course you can also do queen rearing to get the cells to put in. If you have multiple queen cells you can cut some off and put them in nucs.

Keeping a backup queen. When you requeen take some of those old queens and put them in nucs with a frame of brood and honey and if the new queen gets rejected you still have a spare. Also, if you just keep a nuc with a queen in it for a spare, you can requeen a hive with that queen. To keep it weak, keep taking sealed brood out and giving to other hives.

Foolproof requeening. If you do as in the first (splits) and put a caged queen in the nurse bees will quickly accept the queen. After she is laying you can kill the queen in the hive to be requeened and do a newspaper combine. Bees readily accept a laying queen.

Queen bank. I built a shim that is the size of a nuc but ¾" thick and put queen cages with the wire down to keep them for several days or weeks before introducing them.

Comb building. This is especially nice with regressed bees. Since the problem with 4.9mm foundation isn't getting the bees to use the cells, it's getting unnatural large bees to BUILD the cells. If you start a nuc with small bees as in the first (splits) and after it's established, put frames with 4.9mm foundation in the 1,2,4 and 5 position. Feed it well and remove some drawn frames everyday. If there are eggs, put it in another colony to let them emerge and then steal the frame. Keep 3 or 4 pounds of bees in the nuc.

Swarm catching. Nucs are nice for hiving small swarms.

Bait Hives. Nucs are nice for bait hives for swarms. You could use a 10 frame box and that is a nice size too, but is harder to attach in a tree and for best results they need to be 10 feet or so up a tree.

Shaken swarms. You can put a screen bottom on the nuc and shake bees from brood frames from several hives (being careful NOT to get a queen) and you have a bunch of homeless queenless bees. These can be put in hive with some brood so they can raise one or added to a nuc with a caged queen.

Transporting honey. Nucs are nice and light even with five frames of honey, compared to a ten frame box. Nice for putting frames in as you brush off the bees to harvest and nice to carry around.

[arcowandbeegirl]

Wow thanks for all the great info!!