In days of old

[Curly green finger's]

Having a mooch through some books over the winter and parmer, doolittle and brother Adams seem to prefer making summer nucs up with frames of stores than feed syrup.
Also solid floors are preferred @Michael Palmer do you still do the same? Lovely photos of you in some of these books and I feel quite privileged to be able to ask you still.
I plan to and have been moding some brood/nucs to acomadate solid floors my extentions for my double nucs which I will split later are having solid floors.
Wondering what your thoughts are and what your preferred summer nuc splits method would be.
Thanks as always
Mark.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Of course I make my nuclei with a comb of honey rather than syrup. The bees have the combs of feed already in the colony. Why then feed syrup that costs money and could start robbing? The only time I feed syrup to my nucs is when we're getting them ready for winter. If they need additional feed for winter we give it. If not, then no feed is given.

I only use solid floors. Not a fan of screened bottoms. Unnecessary and expensive. I don't see any benefit.

My nucs are started with one comb of sealed brood, one of BIAS, one of honey, and one empty comb. Enough bees to cover the combs of brood and honey. All the brood/bee resources are harvested from my brood factories. This allows the honey producers to remain as strong as possible to do their job making the honey crop.

Is this what you were asking?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Of course I make my nuclei with a comb of honey rather than syrup. The bees have the combs of feed already in the colony. Why then feed syrup that costs money and could start robbing? The only time I feed syrup to my nucs is when we're getting them ready for winter. If they need additional feed for winter we give it. If not, then no feed is given.

I only use solid floors. Not a fan of screened bottoms. Unnecessary and expensive. I don't see any benefit.

My nucs are started with one comb of sealed brood, one of BIAS, one of honey, and one empty comb. Enough bees to cover the combs of brood and honey. All the brood/bee resources are harvested from my brood factories. This allows the honey producers to remain as strong as possible to do their job making the honey crop.

Is this what you were asking?

Yes it is Michael thanks for the detailed reply.
As I use pallets for stands some one recently came up with the idea of securing the solid floors to the pallet with entrances going out at different directions as to make use of all the space on a pallet, this I can see would have benefits for overwintering and keeping the colonys together with straps do you do anything similar?

 

[Michael Palmer]

Yes it is Michael thanks for the detailed reply.
As I use pallets for stands some one recently came up with the idea of securing the solid floors to the pallet with entrances going out at different directions as to make use of all the space on a pallet, this I can see would have benefits for overwintering and keeping the colonys together with straps do you do anything similar?

Production hives are 2 on a stand, facing the same direction. Nucleus colonies and mating nuclei have more multiple colonies and than one entrance...facing in different directions.

 

[rolande]

@Michael Palmer do you still do the same? Lovely photos of you in some of these books and I feel quite privileged to be able to ask you still.

Is MP really that old?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

brother Adams seem to prefer making summer nucs up with frames of stores than feed syrup.

I always use frames of stores, once spring is here properly, I remove any excess stores from the hives and keep them just for this purpose

 

[Newbeeneil]

I always use frames of stores, once spring is here properly, I remove any excess stores from the hives and keep them just for this purpose

That is one of the reasons I'm not over worried about giving fondant during the winter. I'd rather be removing frames of stores in the spring than corpses

 

[Arfermo]

Of course I make my nuclei with a comb of honey rather than syrup. The bees have the combs of feed already in the colony. Why then feed syrup that costs money and could start robbing? The only time I feed syrup to my nucs is when we're getting them ready for winter. If they need additional feed for winter we give it. If not, then no feed is given.

I only use solid floors. Not a fan of screened bottoms. Unnecessary and expensive. I don't see any benefit.

My nucs are started with one comb of sealed brood, one of BIAS, one of honey, and one empty comb. Enough bees to cover the combs of brood and honey. All the brood/bee resources are harvested from my brood factories. This allows the honey producers to remain as strong as possible to do their job making the honey crop.

Is this what you were asking?

Chap I knew made up 4 national size boxes in a block each with its entrance in a different direction and all set on a pallet or similar, thus saving timber on 2 sides of each hive in the block with the benefit of warmth/insulation from the neighbouring boxes.. Mostly thin ply if remember correctly as he only used it during the productive season. Used for bringing on splits and new queens. Worked fantastically well.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Is MP really that old?

He's young in the books

 

[Curly green finger's]

That is one of the reasons I'm not over worried about giving fondant during the winter. I'd rather be removing frames of stores in the spring than corpses

We are on the same page Neil I'm the same with fondant.

 

[rolande]

He's young in the books

He'd have to be, especially the Doolittle books!

 

[Curly green finger's]

He'd have to be, especially the Doolittle books!

There not doolittle books but doolittle photos are in there as are photos of MP

 

[rolande]

There not doolittle books but doolittle photos are in there as are photos of MP

Oh OK. That narrows it down drastically then - but I'm not going *there* again!

 

[Michael Palmer]

He's young in the books

Well, I know I'm older than I ever was but...How old am I?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Well, I know I'm older than I ever was but...How old am I?

I wouldn't have the cheak to ask

 

[Michael Palmer]

Yes it is Michael thanks for the detailed reply.
As I use pallets for stands some one recently came up with the idea of securing the solid floors to the pallet with entrances going out at different directions as to make use of all the space on a pallet, this I can see would have benefits for overwintering and keeping the colonys together with straps do you do anything similar?

No, I don't use pallets. Here's a photo of one of my mating nuc wintering apiary. The strapped hives were just moved in from the mating apiary in November. Each are two combined 2-way mating nucs with 18 mating nuc combs each. Four such united are located on each stand in groups of two so one standard lid can be use in wintering. They're then given a sheet of foam insulation and wrapped with tar paper.

 

[rolande]

We like that kind of two way nuc but use medium depth boxes which is plenty for our location although experiments with lang deep depth did impress us for a few reasons. One big difference is that I chose to have the entrances next to the divider, almost opposite each other which has cost the chance of wintering pushed together, but I'm always open to reworking things...

@Curly green finger's , funnily enough, this one is on a pallet, they aren't normally though. Just two lengths of timber on an old feed sack or bit of tarp usually suffice, definitely preferable from my point of view

 

[Somerford]

Well, I know I'm older than I ever was but...How old am I?

As my grandmother always told me when I asked her ' I'm as old as my tongue, and a little bit older than my teeth'.

I think she lived to 92

KR

S