National to Commercial adapter?

[beehatch]

Does anyone know if it's possible to buy a ready-made adapter to allow National frames to be used in a Commercial brood box?

I know I could make them myself, but the last time I did that they didn't fit well enough and the bees stuck the fames together trying to fill up the gaps.

 

[george]

I have no idea which is probably a bit unhelpful.
However , if you want to move from Nat to Commercial why not wait till the Spring flow gets going and do a Bailey frame change , both have much the same dimensions so you can just put the Commercial box over the National and the bees will move up in to it . Once the Queen is in the top box put an excluder between the two to contain her and once the brood in the National box have hatched , remove it .
I am not a fan of shook swarms , but that is another option too .( i will let someone else describe that one to you )

G

 

[Foxylad]

Hamilton Convertor

Awaiting mine.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/hamilton.html

 

[Poly Hive]

Not done the one you want but have done Smith to Langstroth and more nat to Lang than you can shake a stick at.

All I used was a piece of ly to fit the LARGER box with a decent sized hole in it to let the bees up through.

Don't worry about a bit of brace comb: that is where your hive tool come into play. I should add I strongly dislike the "J" type and use the scraper type and that is what I am referring to.

KISS

PH

 

[Black Comb]

At PH's suggestion this worked fine for me last year (nat to lang)

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Not done the one you want but have done Smith to Langstroth and more nat to Lang than you can shake a stick at.

All I used was a piece of ly to fit the LARGER box with a decent sized hole in it to let the bees up through.

Don't worry about a bit of brace comb: that is where your hive tool come into play. I should add I strongly dislike the "J" type and use the scraper type and that is what I am referring to.

KISS

PH

PH - ly = ply?

 

[tonybloke]

Does anyone know if it's possible to buy a ready-made adapter to allow National frames to be used in a Commercial brood box?

I know I could make them myself, but the last time I did that they didn't fit well enough and the bees stuck the fames together trying to fill up the gaps.

plans and dimensions in Ted Hooper 'guide to bees and honey'

 

[sherwood]

a converter exists to convert a national hive to contain commercial frames a Hamilton converter page 5 of Th**nes catalog. However you want to use national frames in a commercial hive you could put packing peices in each side however you will still get comb built on the bottom of the frames which may or may not be parrallel with each frame. If not then you may have problems removing and replacing frames when you do frame checks.
I can not see any benifit in what you want to do, so why would you want to do it.

 

[victor meldrew]

This worked for me (Big jump, Bs nuc to 14"x12")


John Wilkinson

 

[Rosti]

John, I like that a great deal, very elegant solution to up scaling if you are also moving frame size (e.g having bought a Std Nat Nuc). Being a 14x12 'only' person my nucs are sized accordingly.

 

[Poly Hive]

Yup typo... ply.

No need to make things overly complex. A lump of ply to fit and a hole....

KISS

PH

 

[Skyhook]

This worked for me (Big jump, Bs nuc to 14"x12")
John Wilkinson

Nice! I'm looking to do similar, and some more detail would be great. A) when did you do it, B) was the 14 x 12 full, or dummied out to match the nuc, and C) did they find that amount of space daunting (by which I suppose I mean where they held back by cold space)?

 

[victor meldrew]

John, I like that a great deal, very elegant solution to up scaling if you are also moving frame size (e.g having bought a Std Nat Nuc). Being a 14x12 'only' person my nucs are sized accordingly.

That is a purpose built nuc box/ swarm catcher with an adapter to allow introduction of a grafting bar for queen rearing !.
Original drawing on dear Davids site!.
Adaption is a deep crown board with holes to match grafting bar , this and standard crown board/lid are interchangeable and the clamps are all aligned to suit both
Nb the entrance which has a two position closure! , fully open allows bees/swarm both egress and ingress ! partial ie bottom closed , allows ingress only ,allowing one to pick up stragglers after catching a swarm and to prevent absconding.

John Wilkinson

 

[victor meldrew]

Nice! I'm looking to do similar, and some more detail would be great. A) when did you do it, B) was the 14 x 12 full, or dummied out to match the nuc, and C) did they find that amount of space daunting (by which I suppose I mean where they held back by cold space)?

Operation carried out in June , division boards were used to match nuc, some (maybe three) drawn comb was used , all on outside of division boards was filled with foundation. I simply moved division boards outwards as more room was required )

John Wilkinson
I gave box away and have since made all 14x12 nucs

 

[beehatch]

Thanks for all the advice.

The method in victor meldrew's photo looks miles better than making some adapters.

It looks like it could be difficult to stop it all wobbling if the nuc doesn't happen to be on some convenient pallets that you can lash it down to. What do you think about putting the nuc to one side of the bigger box rather than in the middle? (Still underneath it, of course). Then I could prop up the other side of the bigger box up on something.

 

[tonybloke]

make some like this
http://youtu.be/qcbkxjWYWZM

if i can do it.....................................

 

[Mike a]

Another option is a shook swarm if you are prepared to hold off for awhile with the added bonus of knocking down varroa levels.

 

[Poly Hive]

Seems you are being tempted beehatch.
KISS

One piece of ply and a hole.. no pallet no lashing (can you tie a good knot?) just simplicity is good.

PH

 

[MJBee]

Beehatch, Everyone has assumed that it is a National Nuc you are planning to move into a Commercial, if this is so why not move the Nucleus frames into a full sized National brood box. Close off the "spare" space and place the Commercial brood on top (it's the same size), with the same number of frames again dummied off until they fill the frames. Much more stable IMO

 

[farbee]

14x12 vs Commercial

I am considering converting from national brood boxes to either 14 x 12 or commercial which leads me to wondering if there are any advantage/disadvantage of 14 x 12 over commercial.