Plywood nucs

[rje66]

Hi, I'm making up a few nucs from plywood. These are just for back up/ quick fixes/baithives etc. Not really expecting to get long life from them.
Question is what's the best way to treat the exposed cut ends??
Any other advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Swarm]

I use wood glue.

 

[elite123]

As Swarm suggests you can use wood glue, or if you have quite a while between construction and baiting I guess end grain preserver would be best.

TBH, I probably wouldn't bother but just design so water will run away from exposed cuts/not stand on it

 

[REDWOOD]

It's the roofs that seem to suffer, it must be that water runs down the sides and holds on the bottom edge, I have replaced mine with redwood


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[rje66]

Great .thanks for replies.
Roughly what life span would be expected, 5-8 years???.
It rains a bit here

 

[Tom Bick]

Use a good quality wbp ply and you won't need to treat the edges. Far eastern WBP hardwood ply is what you are looking for.

I must have made over 60 ply nucs, people just keep asking for them. A few of my own are in their eleventh season and have overwintered many a nuc. They do get treated to a garden fence stain every few years just to spruce them up a bit.

 

[rje66]

Use a good quality wbp ply and you won't need to treat the edges. Far eastern WBP hardwood ply is what you are looking for.

I must have made over 60 ply nucs, people just keep asking for them. A few of my own are in their eleventh season and have overwintered many a nuc. They do get treated to a garden fence stain every few years just to spruce them up a bit.

What thickness?? 18mm??
Found a supplier near me doing Malaysian hardwood ply.
In 18 or 25 mm.

 

[nantmoel]

It's the roofs that seem to suffer, it must be that water runs down the sides and holds on the bottom edge, I have replaced mine with redwood


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Just made 4 new redwood ones - I got the aluminium for nothing, my son gets '25mm Celltex' for insulation, a few hours in the workshop cutting the finger joints, so the 4 cost me £20. Plywood always seams to peel after a few years. I treat the wood with 'Screwfix' value brown wood preservative and the rain just runs off them.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Wet weather.
Epoxy resin is a plastic coating. Waterproof.
Sometimes it rains in summertime here too.

 

[Tom Bick]

What thickness?? 18mm??
Found a supplier near me doing Malaysian hardwood ply.
In 18 or 25 mm.

12mm is perfect

 

[snelgrove]

Coat the cut ends with PVA

 

[Little John]

Coat the cut ends with PVA

Or 'D4' ex. Toolstation, £6 a litre. 100% waterproof - I use it for just about everything, especially for coating exposed end grain prior to painting. Only has a six-month shelf-life, but which can be extended by decanting the glue into smaller containers - those not being used kept full, to minimise amount of air in contact.
LJ

 

[madasafish]

Coat the cut ends with PVA

I dilute PVA with water about 2:1 waterVA. Makes spreading it on easier and works well..

 

[Finman]

12mm is perfect

that will be very cold to bees.

Perfect is poly nuc. And without mesh floor.

Try and compare.

 

[Little John]

Tom Bick: 12mm is perfect

that will be very cold to bees. Perfect is poly nuc. And without mesh floor. Try and compare.

And it's not just the thickness. Plywood is made using high levels of compression, which results in a very dense material. Again, which results in poor insulation - which is important with such small colonies, less so with larger ones.

And yet, people will insist on using plywood to make Nuc Boxes (especially in the US). Not the best choice of material, imo.
LJ

 

[Noddy]

<snip>
And yet, people will insist on using plywood to make Nuc Boxes (especially in the US). Not the best choice of material, imo.
LJ

And yet they work, funny old world, isn't it

 

[pargyle]

And yet they work, funny old world, isn't it

Do they? Not sure about the dead out rate of bees in thin ply nuc boxes over winter ...

 

[Little John]

And yet they work, funny old world, isn't it

As mating-nucs and summer boxes, yes - can't disagree with that ...

Last year somebody sent me a link to a video of a Dutch or Scandinavian guy who successfully uses corrugated milk cartons as mating nucs - he swears by 'em. Not my choice, but there you go ...
LJ

 

[Finman]

.
I have used long time as mating nucs 3-frame normal frame polynucs.
Build up is amazing compared to wooden nucs.

But it is everybody's own choice what they use.

.

 

[wightbees]

Nice tip on the glue LJ i will be going to get some tomorrow. I have loads to glue up still.