Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Saltcreek on February 05, 2009, 01:04:21 pm
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Can medium frames be used in a deep Nuc (wood or cardboard) without too much problem? I have a few deep Nucs for getting swarms and don't want to cut them just in case. However I have converted all my other equipment to Mediums. I thought then I could move the medium frames from the Nuc to the medium box easier. Will they abscond or not like the Nuc? I will be using new wax coated plastic foundation. Thanks.
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mediums would fit but they would probably draw comb on the bottoms of your frames and then they wouldn't fit in your hive bodies. I guess you could just keep and eye on them and cut the comb off the bottom but I think it's probably not your best solution. Either cut the NUCs down or maybe you could put a block of foam or balsa in the bottom to fill up the space(assuming your nuc has or you can make an upper entrance for it) which would allow you to use medium frames and you could remove the blocks if you needed to use deeps for some reason. Just a thought.a
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I wouldnt put medium frames in a deep nuc. They will more than likely build comb at the bottom of the frames making a mess. I would suggest cutting down your deep nucs to mediums and use hive staples to hold 2 together with frames in each box to pick up swarms. Swarms are wax drawing machines. IMO if you got 10 frames in 2 five frame medium nucs they will be farther ahead than medium frames in a deep
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I use medium frame nucs. When catching swarms I've found a single 5 frame medium box a little small for average to large swarms. The good news is that 2 medium nucs isn''t any harder to handle when swarm catching than a single deep. After a few weeks in a double medium nuc you can transfer 10 well developed frames over to a standard box and add a super.
If you put 2 or 3 of those frames in the 2nd box and new frames below you can have a fully developed double medium hive in a month which is enough to over winter in in a pinch. If you pull some frames from an established hive the swarm will develop even faster.
In keeping bee swarms from absconding up room is more important than side space. That is: a swarm is less likely to abscond from a double medium nuc than from a single 10 frame hive.
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For swarm traps I usually use deep nucs with medium frames in them. Just because I want to end up on medium frames and I HAVE the deep nucs and I don't want to give up the volume for the trap. A five frame medium box would be a bit small. If you catch a swarm in a deep box with medium frames, you just need to transfer them within a short time to a medium box.
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Thanks for the replies all. Michael seems to already be doing what I was wondering about, but I wasn't sure it works. Thanks.