Nuc boxes poly or cedar.

[Millet]

Thanks I'll keep looking.did anybody have any bargains on the so called black Friday?

Abelo had a sale for the full month of November which saved me a few quid on poly roofs and supers..

 

[user 6228]

I gave thought of adding insulation to a wooden hive and making it a permanent fixture (I use poly cosies). I did that to a TBH which works well but TBHs tend to be fixed....

But it is time consuming to make, there are LOTS of protrubrances on a National which interfere with insulation (a Langstroth has only flat sides so easier.).

But the biggest thing to put me off was the increased width of the walls coupled with the need for handholds and then the problems of seating wider walls on top of wider walls - the insulation at the edges being soft is vulnerable to damage.

All in all, I decided it was easier to make nucs of insulation only and discard the wood.. and strengthen the mating areas.. As for handholds I use sheets of ply glued to the end walls of the nuc with a wooden handle attached. Yes they are vulnerable to damage when separating double nuc boxes but very cheap and easy to make (Langs so flat sides as mentioned above)

PIR nucs (50mmthick) with 2mm correx mating surfaces work well. The trick is to change the way you separate them. We do it this way:
You slide a hive tool between the two correx faces all the way around the nuc. Dont lever at all! They just pop apart.
If you seal the edge of the correx to the PIR with ally tape its easy to pick the point to insert the tool.
Nationals are easy to do. You make a box of the oversize outside dimensions and glue in two inserts for the lug supports.