National nuc to 14x12?

[dustymeerkat]

Hi!

I'm making plans for starting up next year and have arranged for a nuc purchase early 2018. This will come on regular national brood frames but I plan to use 14x12 brood boxes ultimately.

I can of course run the national brood box for a season and then bailey change to a 14x12 in the following spring but I did wonder whether it might be practical/possible to place the nuc on arrival in a national brood box with dummy boards to fill the space and a 14x12 above. I'm assuming either of these 2 options (if the 2nd is indeed an option!) would be preferable to putting the frames directly into a 14x12 box and having space beneath the frames for the bees run riot in.

All help/advice gratefully received!

Many thanks.

 

[kevrhcfag]

You don't say what kit you actually have, but if that's the size you want to run then I would just put them straight onto 14 x 12 rather than let them build up on standard national seems a pointless exercise.

Do this using nuc with 14 x 12 frames above, or standard brood box with 14 x 12 above. I would just dummy it down to the 5 frames or so.

Might find this could be moved to beginners section.

 

[Eyeman]

Hi!

I'm making plans for starting up next year and have arranged for a nuc purchase early 2018. This will come on regular national brood frames but I plan to use 14x12 brood boxes ultimately.

I can of course run the national brood box for a season and then bailey change to a 14x12 in the following spring but I did wonder whether it might be practical/possible to place the nuc on arrival in a national brood box with dummy boards to fill the space and a 14x12 above. I'm assuming either of these 2 options (if the 2nd is indeed an option!) would be preferable to putting the frames directly into a 14x12 box and having space beneath the frames for the bees run riot in.

All help/advice gratefully received!

Many thanks.

Just buy a 14x12 nuc. I'll should have a number over overwintered 14x12 nucs come spring.

 

[REDWOOD]

If it's a strong nuc purchased in May It will have no problem being placed in a 14x12
Place empty frame against side wall.
place nuc frames in order next
place remaining 14x12 frames last
Don't split the brood
feed until most of the frames have been drawn
Move the last frame against the first frame you put in as the colony expands.

The end of next year or beginning of the following year you can start moving the standard frames to the side walls and eventually move them out of the hive.
Bees will extend the standard frames to the same size as a 14x12 frame but not a biggie, you just need to be careful inspecting them.
Done this many times before with no issues

Some might say there is no need to feed if bees are collecting nectar but I disagree. A bees life expectancy is the amount of flying hours, the less they fly the longer they live giving you more bees so the colony expands quickly

 

[Erichalfbee]

As Redwood
I have had short frames in one box for two years. They will be changed next year. The bees are fine with them and if you do as Redwood says and introduce the nuc to 14x12 frames straight away the bees will extend them with worker cells because that’s what they need.

 

[MartinL]

Three of my nucs (used mainly for swarms) have ekes detachable at the bottom.
This allows switching from standard to 14X12.
Would be a fairly simple job to knock up the lower box,
the less capable your carpentry skills the sooner you'd need to move into the full sized hive.

 

[dustymeerkat]

Many thanks, all!

Moving them straight into the 14x12 sounds like a plan then.

Cheers!

 

[Beefriendly]

but I plan to use 14x12 brood boxes .

You might be better advised to let the fecundity of your queen(s) determine the size of hive. A poor queen in a large space will not do well. A very fecund queen in a 14x12 will not have enough space.
As Brother Adam famously said..."Let the Bees tell you"