Nuc Width?

[nonstandard]

I'm looking at making some ply 14x12 nucs ready for next year, I have looked at the plans from Martin Adams but it looks to me like they are going to be too big to fit two to a national roof.

Hopefully my maths is correct, I have worked out the following:

Width of national 460mm
2 x Nucs @ 230mm each
Using 18mm ply, 2 x sides = 36mm
230 - 36 = 194mm for the end boards

each frame = 35mm
5 x frames = 175mm
194 - 175 = 19mm

My question is, is 19mm too much free space for a 5 frame nuc and if so how much do I reduce the width of the nuc by to reduce the 'slack'?

 

[broandy]

try your workings from a nat roof it will stop a lot of no good answers and you making mistakes if you need it to fit under a nat roof

Andy

 

[Skyhook]

I'm looking at making some ply 14x12 nucs ready for next year, I have looked at the plans from Martin Adams but it looks to me like they are going to be too big to fit two to a national roof.

My question is, is 19mm too much free space for a 5 frame nuc and if so how much do I reduce the width of the nuc by to reduce the 'slack'?

18mm Dummy board?

 

[oliver90owner]

For a start 5 frames requires 6 bee spaces.

Second - to what use are you expecting to put them? Just summer or overwintering?

Some of mine (Dartington 'carry boxes') have just 6mm ply sides and one can squeeze in 6 frames (too tight for proper bee spaces on the outer frames. The Dartington honey boxes use 9mm ply sides. But for a standard nuc I would think the bees might be able to draw and use for stores, so those outer sides it might be OK. I always use drawn comb wherever possible in my 14 x 12 nucs, so those outer sides are usually ignored (and being next to a 6mm wall would not help)

There is a lot of slack, and as Broandy says, the roof is the limiting factor and although you don't want it 'tight' there may be a few mm spare there.

Personally, for summer use I would not bother with a national lid over two - a simple board cut to fit each nuc is often satisfactory.

So it depends, really, why you want to fit them under a Nat roof and for how long. All mine have their own nuc sized roofs for longer term use, but I don't use the roof when used as bait hives - too heavy to carry around and a screwed down lid is more secure when recovering them from hedgerows.

Regards, RAB

 

[MuswellMetro]

I'm looking at making some ply 14x12 nucs ready for next year, I have looked at the plans from Martin Adams but it looks to me like they are going to be too big to fit two to a national roof.

Hopefully my maths is correct, I have worked out the following:

Width of national 460mm
2 x Nucs @ 230mm each
Using 18mm ply, 2 x sides = 36mm
230 - 36 = 194mm for the end boards

each frame = 35mm
5 x frames = 175mm
194 - 175 = 19mm

My question is, is 19mm too much free space for a 5 frame nuc and if so how much do I reduce the width of the nuc by to reduce the 'slack'?

its a problem in all national format if you use 35mm hoffman as the 35mm spacing was orinigally a langstroth width, National width was 37 to 38mm and plastic spacer still are

so in your 14x12 brood you have external 460mm-2x18mm side= 424 internal, so in the main brood if you have 11x35 + 6mm extra beespace=391 ,so the slack is 33mm, do does that cause you a problem in your brood box, no, because by the time they get propolised and waxed, they are about right with a dummy board

so in a 230mmNUC half width of a 460mm Natational , i would just use a dummy board , you may wish to have one less than the standard 12mm one, such as a correx board one £hornes sell

 

[BKF Admin]

I have a few summer nucs that I dont use a dummy board in,the only time it becomes a problem is when they are ready to expand and then start to build burr comb on the nuc wall,but they should be put in a full size box by that time.

 

[nonstandard]

The nucs would be predominately for summer use, but I would like to have the option to put two together under a roof for overwintering.

From everyone's suggestions it seems that it's a toss up between a dummy board and using plastic ends. As I've just ordered 100 narrow ends from th***es sale I will probably try that first.

Having just said that I've just had a blinding flash of inspiration, I guess that if putting two nucs together under a roof for winter one could always position the dummy boards on the outer facing sides for added insulation.

 

[drstitson]

slightly thinner ply for side walls then have space for a frame feeder instead of a dummy board???