Me again sorry.

[Brigsy]

You must be getting bored with me now! Sorry.

Just been to see how my commercial hive colony is getting on with stores and to check on the new queens progression. Introduced her at the very end of August. She is clearly laying and accepted.

The colony has lots of stores and I am making syrup available if they want it. However there are only four or so frames of bias. Mostly capped. Taking into account the gap for the new queen and he probable slow down due to apiguard, and winter brood nest, is this too little to stay in a full hive? Maybe I should nuc them for winter?

Or am I overthinking this.

 

[chrisb]

no doubt someone will correct me !

dont just look at brood look at entire situation, if all other frames are stores or being filled I would think it as a bad move to reduce to a nuc box as you would loose 4 frames of stores / possible stores, thus hit winter not enough to keep them fed as you would only have 2 frames of stores

 

[Brigsy]

Makes sense. They do indeed have about that many frames of stores of various stages of evaporation.

 

[pargyle]

Makes sense. They do indeed have about that many frames of stores of various stages of evaporation.

If there are frames that they have not drawn out, once they are fed up for the winter, you can take these out and replace them with insulation - Kingpan with the edges sealed with aluminium tape is good -fill the spare space and they are not going to have so much space to keep warm.

 

[Brigsy]

Great tip. Thanks. That would work. I've heard kingspan mentioned before. Can I get that at B and q?

 

[justsmith]

Yep can get kingspan from b and q i think it's marked as celotex in stores

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

or just try and cadge a few offcuts from any builders nearby.

 

[Brigsy]

Thanks. I can indeed see celotex on the website. That will do. And some aluminium tape.

 

[Millet]

Great tip. Thanks. That would work. I've heard kingspan mentioned before. Can I get that at B and q?

B@Q will have your eyes out, go to a builders merchant and take a wood saw and tape measure with you so you can cut it up to fit in your car, most builders merchants do it in 8 x 4ft sheets, you can get it in different sizes but you end up with more waste, better still go for a scrounge in some skips near a building site if there is any near by.

 

[Brigsy]

Nice one. Going skip hunting later.

 

[pargyle]

Nice one. Going skip hunting later.

Wickes do smaller sheets of Celotex which are not expensive - but skip diving is my preferred supply route !

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Celotex-50mm-High-Performance-Cavity-Wall-Board-450x1200mm/p/190546

Toolstation are best for aluminium tape:

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p97723?searchstr=aluminium tape

Whatever you do don't use duct tape inside the hive ... the bees will eat it and then get caught up in the reinforcing glassfibre and what's left of the adhesive - and die.

Do a proper job.

 

[Brigsy]

Very tidy. Thanks I think I may be able to do that.

 

[BeeJayBee]

If there are frames that they have not drawn out, once they are fed up for the winter, you can take these out and replace them with insulation - Kingpan with the edges sealed with aluminium tape is good -fill the spare space and they are not going to have so much space to keep warm.

Dummy frame or division board size?

 

[beeno]

Before skip dipping you are supposed to ask the owner's permission.

 

[Brigsy]

My scavenging this week has got me a double glazed window for a solar wax melting device next year. And I did ask haha

 

[Erichalfbee]

Dummy frame or division board size?

It has to be division board.
A dummy frame will not provide anywhere near the insulation required but is better than nothing

 

[pargyle]

It has to be division board.
A dummy frame will not provide anywhere near the insulation required but is better than nothing

Yep ... mine are made to fit snugly but not tightly to the inside of the hive - the bees tend to seal the small gap to the side of the hive with propolis. You will find, in spring, that that you need to run a knife down the edge to free it and grip the celotex rather than the top bar - or you end up with the top bar in your hands and the celotex still in the hive (Been there, Done that !).

I attach the timber strip that I make for a top bar to the Celotex with grip fill or similar and drill some dowels through the top bar and down into the celotex to hold it all together. Probably a bit over-engineered but if you are going to the trouble of making something you might as well make it to last.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Thanks.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Before skip dipping you are supposed to ask the owner's permission.

Acme skip company?

 

[psafloyd]

Wickes do smaller sheets of Celotex which are not expensive - but skip diving is my preferred supply route !

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Celotex-50mm-High-Performance-Cavity-Wall-Board-450x1200mm/p/190546

Toolstation are best for aluminium tape:

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p97723?searchstr=aluminium tape

Whatever you do don't use duct tape inside the hive ... the bees will eat it and then get caught up in the reinforcing glassfibre and what's left of the adhesive - and die.

Do a proper job.

I've used gaffer tape and it's worked well and the bees have left it alone. If you don't have aluminium tape, try that.

Or you may find aluminium tape in some pound shops. I have a local independent cheapo shop and they have almost every type of tape for a quid (except copper and gaffer).