[woodsy]

Last spring the package bees fit nicely into medium boxes. The package bees did not survive the winter.
This year I am getting nucs so do i need to get some deep boxes and frames built to accommodate the nucs ?

 

[22DPac]

It sounds like that would be the easiest route. If you wanted to try and eventually get them back into mediums, you could place the medium boxes directly on top of the deep, especially if you have the drawn comb available in the medium size. If you didn't want to buy a lot of new frames, you could also try and make a 5 frame medium to place directly on top of a 5 frame deep.

 

[Rader Sidetrack]

My personal choice would be to stay with medium boxes and just make a 3" high shim to screw to the bottom of the hive body to accommodate the deep frames. Add the 5 deep frames and 5 medium frames. Block off the area under the medium frames.

Eventually you can rotate out the deep frames and shim.

.

 

[crazylocha]

Or for few dollars investment, Dadant now has a nuc intro top board..
Place board on top of 2 mediums, and nuc on top of that. Simple.
If its a Jester nuc(plastic), just pull frames out and set in pair of empty mediums til you cut bottom of Jester out n duct tape that to board, replace frames in nuc, close entrance so they go through mediums. They will eventually move down.
Sidenote, make sure you have something underneath the empty mediums before temporarily placing nuc frames in there. Many a queen has been left on ground and stepped on, left out, etc.

Dadant 2014 catalog- Nuc intro board #B91401

 

[woodsy]

Thanks for all the advice.
Probably wouldn't hurt to have some deep boxes and frames around
just for this purpose.
My hives are 8 frame and the nucs are 4 frame.
Would it be better to add wax foundation to the new deep frames or go foundationless frames or just add a starter strip?

 

[Vance G]

An even easier cheaper non wasteful thing to do is to set up two mediums brood boxes with the middle four frames in each box left open. When you get your four frame nuc, any frames with no brood don't put in double medium and put frames up and down to fill the gaps. After the colony has expanded onto the medium frames and it has warmed up, move the deep frames to one side and as the outside frame becomes broodless, remove it and replace with two medium frames on the far side and move the next deep brood frame to the outside where it will in turn emerge and be filled with honey instead of brood. If you let the bees rob out the honey in the deep frame, it is a small trick to run the frame thru a table saw and take it down to the proper medium frame size. If it is strong well drawn comb, you really won't even need to replace the bottom bar.

If you choose to wrap up your nuc, consider just placing all the frames at one side to start with. If you cut a follower of Styrofoam insulation and put it in place of outside frames, it would be even better.

For maximum expansion in cool country like ours, reduce that opening down to about two bees wide until it is an impossible traffic jam before enlarging it. If you must use a sbb wait til July and allow your bees to heat their broodnest.

 

[dkofoed]

I believe some suppliers can also provide nucs in medium boxes - I've seen a couple locally where I am, but not sure if that's common.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

There are nucs in medium boxes - they are not as popular as nucs in deeps and one has to hunt for them. The obvious alternative is Packages.

If you have already ordered the deep nucs putting them into a double medium is the quick and cheap solution.

What was your winter like in Oxford? I had a few colonies I kept in triple 10 frame deeps that survived winter - that is a lot of 8 frame medium boxes!

 

[woodsy]

Appreciate all the input.

There are nucs in medium boxes - they are not as popular as nucs in deeps and one has to hunt for them. The obvious alternative is Packages.

If you have already ordered the deep nucs putting them into a double medium is the quick and cheap solution.

What was your winter like in Oxford? I had a few colonies I kept in triple 10 frame deeps that survived winter - that is a lot of 8 frame medium boxes

Yeah, I don't think having some deeps around could hurt anything. Hope to expand some if we can get any bees through the winter.
I'm not sure how Oxford showed up in my location box, actually in southern Franklin county. Must be the ISP router location.
Winter here was toughest in a long while.
We hit 20 below or more several times and snow was a solid 4' deep
for a couple weeks last month, lost sight of the hives that died earlier in winter. That and extended cold spells was hard on the firewood
supply too.