Nucleus storage

[planbee]

I intend to place my two nuc’s in a shed for the Winter, when the time comes; I’ve made them up as an insurance, just in case.

I’ve a surfeit of sheds, [two, as it happens].

One is 8 X 6 and stands in the sun, with South facing windows, and the other, 16 X 8, is in the shade of a two story building, [not mine], with a North facing window that only catches very little sun in the late afternoon/evening.

The air in the larger shed is very still, the small shed is a bit leaky with more air gaps, although I could stir the air in either shed, say for five mins in each hour with a fan, and both sheds are dry.

I’m intending to link each nuc to the outside world by a plastic pipe, a la the Sysonby webcam hive, plus a mouse guard.

One shed must remain accessible to me as a workshop during the Winter; which shed would you recommend for the Nuc’s?

John

 

[Frisbee]

The smaller one which gets the sun, although to be fair it will probably get the frost too, but the one which doesn't get the sun will be permanently cold and damp. I don't think lack of air movement in a wooden shed is going to be a problem.

Have you considered putting them in a bigger box with some insulated panels to reduce the space instead of keeping them in a nuc. The bees cluster away from cold surfaces and in a nuc they can't get away from them, and inside a shed like that is going to be only marginally warmer than outside. I made some dummy boards from ply and glued a piece of polystyrene to one side to reduce vacant space, and sucessfully overwintered a colony last year which looking back I was a fool to try..............I also left a super on and put blocks of polystyrene in that above the crown board.

Frisbee

 

[jon]

I am planning to leave a few nucs in a garden shed this winter.
I was going to put them on shelves and completely insulate them with polystyrene sheeting.
I haven't tried this before so just an experiment.

 

[bobandbec]

Good, well fed and strong 5 frame nucs should over Winter perfectly well outside and the chance of condensation, the real killer, should be less outside than inside. A slab of fondant over the top as insurance should make sure they're not short of supplies.

Peter

 

[jezd]

Good, well fed and strong 5 frame nucs should over Winter perfectly well outside and the chance of condensation, the real killer, should be less outside than inside. A slab of fondant over the top as insurance should make sure they're not short of supplies.

Peter

Interesting point and raises an issue regards Nuc design that I was mulling over the other week, why does nobody (from what I can see) do an open mesh floor Nuc box?

boxes would be lighter, less timber needed, better air circulation, much easier for prepping to travel.

Jez

 

[rich]

Thats how I make mine, just replace the base with mesh simple...... and a lot cooler in the summer too

Rich

 

[Hivemaker.]

Also make some of ply with intigrated slide and mesh floor

 

[jezd]

that does look nice, perfect, you know my other gripe with nuc boxes is the being able to pick them up without the lids coming up, I add handles to the sides of mine so that you have a grip point when lifting them up - hope that makes sense.

 

[Haughton Honey]

Pete - when are you going to start selling those on eBay??!

I'd order a few.