A blog originally for keeping track of my hobby of being a Beekeeper which has evolved to include Home Brewing and even more recently to follow me and my families approach to "The Good Life". Eventually I hope to include baking recipes and stories of our flock of chickens also reporting on the success and failure at the allotments.
A nucleus hive, or nuc for short, is a small hive used for rearing new Queens or overwintering small colonies. They are also useful when a hive is wanting to swarm; In the spring a full size hive can have a few frames removed and put into the nuc hive and this can reduce probability of swarming. Due to the reduced volume in a nuc hive the bees find it easier to keep warm and ventilated. Over the last week I have been brave and attempted, with some success, to build one from scratch. I am quite impressed with my handy work as I have limited tools and even less experience. In the future I will borrow some tools from friends and family as I would have created a better product with power tools (due to my sawing not been the straightest at times!).
I started off by looking on the internet for plans for a nuc and found a variety of them, mainly from American beekeepers. In the end I didn't follow any plan exact and just kind of made it up as I went along. The problem with the hive plans I looked at were that they seemed too long and the frames I have wouldn't have reached the edge of the nuc. The plans I was inspired by where from these links here and here. The second is a photo bucket account of someones step by step making of the nuc. The nuc I made is approx 2 inches less in length but most of the other measurements are the same. I had a bunch of frames at hand at all times to make sure my box was going to be the correct size. I also made a stand for the hive and plans can be found here. Again with the plans I changed the sizes slightly as the stand in the plans is for a full sized hive. The stand was fairly easy to make and I will make a couple of full sized ones for my other hives at some point soon.
I started off with a sheet of 18mm thick ply wood
A fair bit of sawing and nailing later
The entrance can be seen here and I have made a simple roof
The first coat of paint goes on
The stand is made and then wood preservative added
The finished nuc hive and stand all painted and ready for bees!
Yesterday was probably my final hive inspection of this year and in this inspection I applied the main varroa treatment for the year, oxalic acid. This acid is found in honey but at really low levels and by introducing it into the hive it kills the varroa mite. The treatment only affects adult Bees so the best time of year to apply the treatment is around now when the level of brood is at a minimum. I know that I have mentioned in a previous post that I would ideally like to keep Bees naturally without the use of chemicals, however as I am still a novice I believe getting my Bees through their first winter and into spring healthy is my number 1 concern. Maybe later I will try the more natural way.
To start with I needed to get hold of oxalic acid crystals and was in luck when one of the people I did my training course with offered to give me enough for two treatments. The exact amount of crystal he gave me was 7.5g per treatment. The crystals where then mixed by myself with 100g of sugar and 100ml of water to give a solution that is 3.2% oxalic in a 1:1 sugar solution. This was harder than it sounds, it took a long time to dissolve the sugar into the water and even longer to dissolve the crystals but I got there in the end. The next step was to introduce the mix to the Bees.
Upon arrival at the hive there was a distinct lack of movement outside the hive, but to be honest it was rather windy and I'd rather have been tucked up in my house. When I removed the hive roof I could see what was left of the fondant I added previously; 1 empty box and 1 almost full. As I removed the crownboard the Bees started to show themselves but were not as lively as I have seen them in the past. I did a quick check of the weight of the remaining frames by gently lifting a couple with my new hive tool and was surprised at how much honey they actually had left; I can only think that with the mild end to autumn the Bees have been collecting later than I imagined they would do, clever Bees! The only thing left for me to do now was to apply the treatment.
The treatment of oxalic acid recommends using 5ml of solution per seam of Bees; a seam being the Bees between 2 frames. In my case there were 9 seams with Bees in so I used a total of 45ml of solution. To apply the solution I used a syringe supplied by the same guy who gave me the crystals (thanks again Steve) and using this I sucked 5ml at a time into the syringe and gently dribbled this onto each seam of Bees. I was surprised that they didn't get aggressive when applying this but obviously happy not to get attacked. After each 5ml was applied I refilled the syringe until all seams had taken 5ml. When I'd put the treatment down I decided to take a short video of the inside of the hive. Here it is
Apart from maybe popping up and clearing snow from the hive (if we get any this year) and maybe a check to see if they have enough food stored, I believe this could have been my last hive visit until spring. I certainly won't be opening up the hive fully until the temperature has risen. In the next few months I will be continuing to go to my Beekeeping meetings and reading my new books which I got for Christmas as well as carrying on with home brewing.
In the last few weeks I have been busy getting ready for the new Beekeeping year. Firstly I have purchased plenty of jars in anticipation of a good honey crop. Even if I don't fill all the jars next year, which I don't expect to do, then I will have spare for the following year or some nice jars to use for jam making! I bought my jars from a glass company in Leeds called Spinkscompak. They have a wide range and as a member of Yorkshire Beekeepers I received a discount.
A full box of 108 hexagonal jars
These will look great with my honey in and labels!
A larger 1lb jar. I have 72 of these.
...and of course the lids for the jars!
I have also been making frames ready to go into my second hive that I hope to get occupied with Bees in the spring. I have made enough to fill 2 supers and just need to make the frames to go into the brood box now. Below is some pictures of me making frames.
All the pieces of a frame before assembly.
This piece gets cut out and nailed back in on top of the foundation.
The frame made up without being nailed together yet.
A nail in each corner, both sides, keeps the top bar in place.
Remember the bit cut out earlier, it is now nailed over the foundation securing it in place
The finished frame ready to be "drawn out" by the Bees ready for honey storage!
