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Author Topic: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.  (Read 1367 times)

Offline van from Arkansas

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Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« on: October 31, 2019, 03:10:26 pm »
Hi Beeks of Beemaster, hope all is well with your bees.

Question regarding 5 frame nucs.  The question is how to re orient my nucs?  I plan to use a rock in front of the small entrance.

I plan to place my nucs side by side to conserve heat.  I mean each nuc touching the next.  Each nuc has a 3/4 inch opening so placing an obstacle in front of the opening must not block the entrance yet disturb the bees enough to reorient.  If I lose my foragers on the next warm day due to hive relocation, that could greatly weaken the nucs.

Daytime temp is 34F with a hard freeze, 26F tonight.  Don?t laugh HP, Aroc. So my plan as stated is to use rocks, the size of a baseball so that the wind won?t move the obstacle.  Sound like a plan?

I should add: Nov-Feb, temps may be single digits or 65F so there will be days warm enough for flight.

Van
« Last Edit: October 31, 2019, 04:26:24 pm by van from Arkansas »
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline Nock

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2019, 05:29:11 pm »
Just like the weather here. I was wondering about something similar to that. How long can they stay inside and then come without having to do a reorientation flight?

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2019, 05:53:00 pm »
Just move them.  Best would be on a cold morning that will be a warm day so they can reorient and find their way home.  But if it's warm I wouldn't think twice.  If it's been too cold for them to fly for three days you could move them in the cold.
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Offline Live Oak

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2019, 10:19:30 am »
I moved my nucs into 8 & 10 frame deep box hives.  They seem to do better in those boxes and they are MUCH easier to insulate.  I believe the extra width allows the cluster to form more naturally as opposed to the narrow limitations of a 5 frame box.  I had one nuc that was kinda weakly that did not fill up an 8 frame box.  I have been wanting to experiment with the Lyson HDPS Nuc so I ordered 4 of them and will put the remaining nuc in one of these. 

I did try 1.5 inch closed cell polyiso foam board cut down to fit inside a deep nuc box that I placed on top of my nucs with the sugar syrup feeder bottle under the foam insulation board.  This worked well and kept the sugar syrup warm enough for the bees to consume all Winter long into Spring.  I pushed the nucs together and wrapped them with 3 layers of Reflectix "double bubble" insulation and used hive straps to hold the Reflectix firmly to the nucs as well as hold the nucs firmly together in groups of 5. 

Offline Live Oak

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2019, 10:22:54 am »
I tried to post some pics showing the insulated nucs but either I am not doing something correctly or the forum software is broke. 

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2019, 01:25:34 pm »
Live oak, pics must be resized to 600X600 largest.  Use resize it app to make the appropriate size.  It?s easy, even for a non tech like me.

Van
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2019, 01:28:24 pm »
I did slide to nucs together.  The other nucs are to heavy for me to lift.  Oh well, a heavy nuc is a good thing, some are 3 high and beyond my lift ability.

Van
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline BAHBEEs

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2019, 03:14:18 pm »
Just curious, but if you are 3 Nucs high...isn't it time for a 10 or 8 frame deep?

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2019, 07:14:55 pm »
BahBees, yes, you are correct.  The sensible thing to do would be to place the nucs in a 10 frame.  However, I am a hobbyist and raise bees for enjoyment, so I don?t always do the sensible thing.  I have to work around disabilities also which is getting more and more difficult.

I can lift a 5 frame nuc, but not a 10 frame.  So I prefer nucs.  Ten of my hives are double Deep 10 frame, 5 are nucs.  I am just having fun with the bees.  Some of my queens have been with me for 3.6 years.  My favorite queen is named Alpha, she is a beauty of a queen, laying maniac she is.

Van
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Winterizing question regarding 5 frame nucs.
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2019, 08:03:33 pm »
I tried to post some pics showing the insulated nucs but either I am not doing something correctly or the forum software is broke.

Mr Live Oak, Mr Van is right in that many us resize it app. However, I worked for quite some time with said app to no avail. Using ReSizer worked for me the first try. Good luck and I look forward to your pictures.
Phillip
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