Frames too short!!!

[Ben32]

Hi all
New to beekeeping
So I bought my self a flow hive two weeks ago, I collected my bees yesterday, but came across a problem when transferring the frames from the nuc to my hive, I bought a 6 frame nuc only to discover upon transferring them into my my that the frames in the nuc were shorter than my hive!! I've checked and my hive is a standard size and the frames I bought from eBay fit perfectly!! So why were the frames in the nuc smaller? Anyway after this attemp at putting the bees in the hive failed I went home and adapted my brood box to fit the frames, I have now successfully transferred the bees to there new hive, now I plan on introducing the new ( correct size) frames 2 at a time, and romoving the smaller frames from the nuc 1 at a time, is this ok? Also there were some dead bees inside the nuc, not many just 15-20 or summet, is this normal to see?
Thanks
Ben

 

[pargyle]

Flow hive Langstroth ... Nuc .. National BS ?

Bees die ... travelling stresses them ... queen lays at 1000-1500 eggs per day so don't be surprised to see a few dead ones.

How much beekeeping experience have you got so far ? Course ? Books ? Joined an Association ? do you have a mentor ? Lots of help usually available on here but tell us a bit more about yourself and the answers you get may be more appropriate to what you already know.

 

[Ben32]

No beekeeping experience what's so ever, I've been getting my information from YouTube, 1step at a time, the bees are in their new hive now they got some suger syrup and a bit of bee food, I saw the queen as I put them in yesterday, and been back today and everything looks fine the bees are flying in and out no problem, my problem is introducing my frames the the hive now and getting rid of the frames that came with the nuc, at the minute they have the same space in my brood box as they did in the 6 frame nuc I bought, I was going to go back down tomorrow and add 2 of my frames to the brood box to encourage the bees to move over so that I can eventually start to remove the small frames, not sure what make the hive is, it just says flow hive, and I can get 10 frames in the brood box, but at minute I've partitioned it of were the 6 frames are so I've got room to add my frames

 

[Anduril]

No beekeeping experience what's so ever, I've been getting my information from YouTube, 1step at a time, the bees are in their new hive now they got some suger syrup and a bit of bee food, I saw the queen as I put them in yesterday, and been back today and everything looks fine the bees are flying in and out no problem, my problem is introducing my frames the the hive now and getting rid of the frames that came with the nuc, at the minute they have the same space in my brood box as they did in the 6 frame nuc I bought, I was going to go back down tomorrow and add 2 of my frames to the brood box to encourage the bees to move over so that I can eventually start to remove the small frames, not sure what make the hive is, it just says flow hive, and I can get 10 frames in the brood box, but at minute I've partitioned it of were the 6 frames are so I've got room to add my frames

The Flow hive is a Langstroth, easiest thing to do is cable tie the smaller frames which are most likely British National deep frames to the top bars of the Langstroth frames, so they are hanging underneath the top bar without any foundation in them and then add your other Langstroth frames with foundation. I have seen homemade Langstroth conversion frames with pieces of wood nailed into the frame gaps.

 

[Ben32]

The Flow hive is a Langstroth, easiest thing to do is cable tie the smaller frames which are most likely British National deep frames to the top bars of the Langstroth frames, so they are hanging underneath the top bar without any foundation in them and then add your other Langstroth frames with foundation. I have seen homemade Langstroth conversion frames with pieces of wood nailed into the frame gaps.

Hi, but the smaller frames are full and are the same depth as my frames so if I cable tied to my frames then I would have to remove the bottom of my frames and then they would be touching the bottom of the brood box I think maybe even standing proad of the brood box,

 

[Anduril]

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...y9GS5ljEMqVpgevlw&sig2=RaYgzCEds_8oMVyMhCWWEQ

Here is a better visual description.

 

[Anduril]

Hi, but the smaller frames are full and are the same depth as my frames so if I cable tied to my frames then I would have to remove the bottom of my frames and then they would be touching the bottom of the brood box I think maybe even standing proad of the brood box,

Do you know if your nuc was a 14x12 or a deep?

 

[Ben32]

Yes I see

 

[Ben32]

No I don't know

 

[Anduril]

No I don't know

If your nuc was a deep then it should be OK with the floor in place. If not you could always add a temporary wooden frame between the floor and brood box.

 

[Anduril]

Are you a member of the honeyflow forum? If not, join it, I have PM'd Tremyfro to check what I have said is correct, she has a Flow hive and there are a few others on here as well.

 

[Ben32]

The frames from the nuc are the same depth as my frames it's the length were there shorter

 

[wightbees]

Tape measure would give us a better idea or photos would be even better. There's normally a fix but first we need to know what your using. Welcome to the world of Endless types of hive types lol

 

[Ben32]

I see what you mean with cable tying them to my frames but as I say, they are the same depth as mine so if I tied them to mine then they would be sitting on the floor I think as you would have doubled the thickness of the top bar, at the minute I have put some peices of wood in to hold the frames at 1 end and I have partitioned it off were my 6 frames are, my plan was to move the partition board along and add my frames a couple at a time, and when the brood has eventually moved over onto my frames then I will start to remove the smaller frames 1 at a time move them all over and add another 1 of mine to the other end so eventually I would have replaced all the small frames, do you understand what I mean, is this a good idea? Will it work?

 

[Anduril]

Must be a national deep! It will be easy to cable tie them into place, it's just whether there is enough room for the joined frames to fit the brood box and floor. If not then an eke (small frame) between brood box and floor would do the trick, when you have changed over to all Langstroth frames with no national frames attached, you would probably need to trim the excess wax underneath the frames before removing the eke.

 

[Ben32]

Lol I assumed they were all a standard siZe lol
Not sure how to get photos on here yet

 

[Ben32]

Ok I will have a look tomorrow, to see if there's enough room at the bottom to do this

 

[Anduril]

I see what you mean with cable tying them to my frames but as I say, they are the same depth as mine so if I tied them to mine then they would be sitting on the floor I think as you would have doubled the thickness of the top bar, at the minute I have put some peices of wood in to hold the frames at 1 end and I have partitioned it off were my 6 frames are, my plan was to move the partition board along and add my frames a couple at a time, and when the brood has eventually moved over onto my frames then I will start to remove the smaller frames 1 at a time move them all over and add another 1 of mine to the other end so eventually I would have replaced all the small frames, do you understand what I mean, is this a good idea? Will it work?

Yes that would work, but don't be too eager to replace all of the frames this year. The pieces of wood you are using, if they are movable then you could introduce the lang frames from both sides and when you want to ditch the national frames place them to the outside of the brood against the wall of the hive one or two at a time. When these frames are empty they can be removed.

 

[Ben32]

Ok, how about I leave the small frames as they are for this year, and give the bees chance to grow and build on the bigger frames

 

[Erichalfbee]

Look here
http://forum.honeyflow.com/t/managed-to-adapt-uk-national-frame-to-langstroth-in-1-minute/7749

All you need to do is take the bottom bars off the Lang frame and tie in the nuc fram. Leaving them is a poor option. The bees might well glue the frames to the side walls.
A word about YouTube. Join a local association and get some help.