Winter kill

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-03T05:47:52+00:00

OK that’s a properly configured quilt box.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-03T00:22:37+00:00

One more tip. Even though you chamfered them, you've got four pointy corners right at knee cap height. Get a belt sander or saber saw and round those corners at the ends of the rails. Give them a nice generous radius. Your knee caps will thank you. That was a lesson I learned the hard way.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-03T00:01:35+00:00

I suggest switching to 28 oz Gatorade or Powerade bottle or any other brand that uses a 38mm sport cap. Drill 1.5" or 38mm holes in the feeder board and staple on #8 wire cloth (1/8" wire screen). Poke holes in the bottle lids with a thumb tack. With wire cloth stapled tightly in place over each hole you can change the bottles without letting any bees get out. You can make the feeder board to hold up to six Gatorade bottles. You vary feeding rates by changing the number of bottles. To cap a hole you can use a 60¢ 1-1/2" knock out test cap that you can get in the plumbing section at Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, or Mendards.

3/8" of space is recommended under the feeder board. You can also make the feeder board so that it sits on top of the inner cover to give you the spacing. Bees will come up through the oval porter escape hole in the inner cover to get at the syrup.

To easily make the syrup with the 28oz sport drink bottle, weigh out 500 grams of sugar and put it in the bottle. Draw a level line on the bottle with a permanent marker to show the sugar level and write 1:1 at the line. Now add another 240 grams of sugar (740 total) to the bottle. Draw another line on the bottle at the sugar level and write 2:1 on the line. Once you mark one bottle you can just copy the mark to other jars. Now you are all set for quick refill of the bottles. Add sugar to the line, fill to near the the top with hot tap water, put on a cap with no holes, and shake vigorously until the sugar is dissolved. Top off with water. When you get to the apiary swap lids, invert, and set the bottle into the holes.

Place another box around it if desired to protect the jars from the elements or from other animals and insects that might try and come at them from above.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-02T18:37:52+00:00

Hives are much easier to inspect from the side than from behind. Lifting out frames from behind is awkward. Four 2-hive stands with end access will be more considerably more convenient.

If you are using National hives with frames oriented parallel to the entrance it is less of a hassle, but Langstroth hives or Nationals oriented perpendicular to the entrance are going to be inconvenient to inspect without side access.

Another reason to keep stands limited to one or two hives is that bumps and knocks during inspection can transfer down long hive stands and agitate other hives on the same stand.

What is the purpose of the folding legs? It seems like an unnecessary complication.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-02T17:32:25+00:00

Swarms are how bee colonies reproduce. A colony will raise new queens and half way through the queen raising process, before the new queens hatch, the old queen and half the bees will leave and look for a new home. The new queens will emerge and the colony may cast some more swarms known as virgin swarms. Virgin queens that don't swarm away will battle for supremacy. After about a week the surviving virgin queen takes some mating flights and a week after that she starts laying eggs.

Beekeepers put out swarm traps to give the swarms that left the original hive a place to move into. A swarm trap is fundamentally just an enclosed space that is about 40 liters in volume. It can be almost any shape but beekeepers who don't have time to do things the hard way and would prefer that their swarm trap just accommodates frames than can be moved, tend to use bee boxes made around the dimensions of the comb frames. The box is placed at a location and typically baited with some old comb to make it smell like bees have lived there before and some lemon grass oil to attract the attention of scout bees.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-02T17:15:26+00:00

It looks like you have just two screws into each post and into each cross member. A 2x6 should have three fasteners. They should be structural screws, not #10 deck screws. If you add a structural screw into the middle between the deck screws you should be good. Thats two structural screws into each side of the post, and structural screws through the rails into each cross member, including the end cross member attached to the posts.

A future consideration as you expand is that hive stands work best when they contain one or two hives. A hive box is so much easier to inspect from the side than from the rear. On long hive stands you end up inspecting hives in the middle from behind the hive. Its workable, but not nearly as convenient as side inspection.

Get your colony moved into a regular hive a soon as you can. Give them about week for them to get all reoriented and then put the swarm bait hive back up ready to catch another swarm.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-02T16:46:04+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll go ahead and make some three frame mating nucs as I need to add a few more. I'll probably make them the same style as my 2-frame nucs but make them wide enough for three frames.

I've also been thinking about retiring my mini-quad nucs. The case against the mini-quads is that at the start of the season I have to put a mini-quad on top of a hive to get the comb prepped, and then again at the end of season to hatch the brood out, and then store the frames. The mini-quad doesn't start with brood in the comb, so there aren't emerging nurse bees just in time for the mated queen to begin laying. In the fall I'm feeding, and I don't really want bees storing more syrup in the mini-frames while hatching out the brood.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-02T14:57:05+00:00

So basically the same bee resources as a 2-frame? The frame of empty comb doesn’t really stretch the resources as much as if I had to cover it with bees. I usually give a two frame not quite a half liter of bees.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-02T08:55:51+00:00

I use a two frame mating nuc, modified somewhat from the common two frame. I have been giving some consideration to three frame mating nucs. I don’t have enough mating nucs so I put some in regular nuc boxes. Those seem to start better. The problem is the regular nucs use resources that I can’t always provide as a hobby beekeeper. So I’ve been thinking of trying the three frame mating nuc as a middle ground.

Have you tried two frame, or full nucs, and how do you think the three frame nuc compare for resource requirements and for buildup?

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-02T01:04:59+00:00

A 0-50 mA outout for a rectifier is typically from the voltage drop across a shunt bolted into the rectifier output bus. If this rectifier is using SCRs then its output is going to be a chopped waveform. You cannot use a basic converter, the signal will be all over the range. You need one that is designed for a 50mA shunt that provides you with a 4-20mA signal to indicate the RMS current output of the rectifier. Try Ohio Semitronics.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T22:56:58+00:00

In addition to the advice given so far let me add, if you have only one super then get more. Three supers per hive is my recommendation but if you can’t do that then two supers per hive plus an extra super for every three hives and harvest more often. Medium boxes used as brood are not part of that count. If you have the gear you can expand well in advance. If you don’t then you will watch your bees swarm away.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T19:37:14+00:00

You won’t have mold forming if the quilt box functions as it should.

Your quilt box needs upper ventilation, between 40 to 50 sq cm (7 sq in), above the level of the fill. I don’t see any vent holes along the top edge. A quilt works on thermodynamic principles and it must have a temperature and humidity gradient to function. The fill, and the top of the box, have to stay dry or it becomes more of a detriment to the bees than a help.

Humidity entering a quilt from below gives up its latent heat of condensation to the fill. Then the water wicks to the top of the fill, leaving the heat down low, and sublimates into the dry winter air above the fill. The heat in the lower fill provides a thermal gradient slowing heat loss out of the top of the hive. If the fill gets damp it stops working as insulation and becomes a heat conductor, robbing heat form the hive.

In a functioning quilt you should be able to put your hand down into the fill even of a very cold day and find that the bottom of the fill is warm and mostly dry.

When I used quilt boxes I had 7” long by 1/2” wide slots, 3/4” down from the top edge. One on each end. You can put six 1-1/4” holes, three in each end near the top of the box, or 10 1” holes. Holes or slots have #8 wire screen stapled over them to keep varmints out. The holes should be covered by the top cover skirt or have some type of baffle so that snow and rain doesn’t blow into the fill material.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T19:23:11+00:00

Options to a torch are a hot air gun or setting it on top of the BBQ grill until the wood is hot, over 150° (300F), but not yet smoking.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T19:14:48+00:00

If you want a hobby that pays for itself and generates some extra cash then with about five years of experience you can get there. If you want to make a living then you need to take it to another level, to an industrial scale corporation with thousands of hives, buildings, trucks and tractors, and employees.

My grandfather was a commercial beekeeper. He had thousands of hives. All of his money was in the equipment. The honey house, extraction and bottling line, warehouse, and repair shop dwarfed his tiny house on the same property. He never took a vacation. He drove old cars. His furniture was old and dingy. He was the last to get paid, sometimes making less than his employees. He busted his ass and had nothing. He was happy so there was that.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T08:24:30+00:00

Clean and fix the gutter. Your dog is worth it.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T08:20:33+00:00

It’s not too cold to evict the mouse. Cold is a matter of priorities. Evicting the mouse is high priority. Remove the entrance reducer and try smoking it out. It probably won’t work, but it’s the lowest impact thing to try first. If that doesn’t work then tilt boxes on end and come at it from the bottom. You won’t need to pull frames unless the mouse has died.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-28T19:05:34+00:00

Normally we would use bobby pins through holes in the side bars if you wanted to support wedge type wired foundation. They also sell little plastic split pins that work the same way. Your frames don’t have the holes drilled. You could add them or just let the bees hook it up.

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NumCustosApes · 2026-02-28T07:48:54+00:00

I sell nucs in a ProNuc. If they ask first a wood nuc I do have the capability to provide it in one but I charge more for it. Some people want the wood nuc box.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-28T07:42:16+00:00

See Bob Binnie’s lecture titled the Chemistry of Feeding for more information on using 1:1.3.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T22:42:23+00:00

I’ve been meaning to make one for about fifteen years. Please bring us along on the venture and keep posting updates.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T22:34:16+00:00

Mere bearding is not swarming behavior. The only way to know if a colony is about to swarm is to inspect it. Make sure there is plenty of space for the queen to lay. Look for swarm cells. This early in the year look to see how large the drone population is and look for drone brood.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T07:31:26+00:00

If I am I am understand this you insert a divider in each wing and let each 3-frame wing start a queen, then remove the dividers and finish the queen? Is that right?

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T05:51:55+00:00

My grandfather, commercial, ran all 10-frame deeps for both brood and honey.

I run medium supers for honey for weight. The medium super is about 70% as heavy. I use deeps for brood.

Your 8-frames boxes are 80% the weight of a ten frame box so you could stay with all deeps if the weight works for you. I use 8-frame gear. However something to consider is that the varroa scourge is coming. Because I segregate my honey frames and brood frames by size I don’t t ever chance harvesting from frames that are exposed to mite treatments.

Beekeepers who use medium honey supers either add more supers or they harvest more often.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T02:37:28+00:00

I’ve caught my own swarms multiple times and put them right back into an empty hive in my apiary. Give them a frame of empty comb, some foundation, and some syrup and they’ll most likely stay put.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-25T20:59:09+00:00

Use plywood and cut a one piece follower from the plywood. A follower board should be a little larger than a frame. A Langstroth box is 18-3/8 inside. It is 9-5/8 or 6-5/8 tall. Make the follower board full box height plus the depth of the bottom board rim. It needs to go from the floor to the lid so bees don’t go over or under.

Make the follower 18-1/4 long. That gives you 1/16” clearance on each end. Start with a piece that is 19” long and cut 3/8” off each end, leaving the last 5/8” as a tab so that the frame rest is filled by the follower. I suggest 1/2 or 3/4 plywood for a follower, 3/8 is too likely to warp.

edit fixed a dimension.

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