BBKA Forum

British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • Incorporating a standard national nucleus hive into a 14 x 12 brood box

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #5972  by Patrick
 18 Mar 2020, 13:17
The reason i liked the "box" idea was that you can make and set it up in advance. Once in place whats really the problem with running most of a first season anyway with a mix of 6 brood frames on 14x12 and 5 on BS deeps? You are only slightly less on capacity and it gives the bees time to establish. Not all nucleus are equal.

You will likely need a second brood box for swarming down the line anyway so simply take the nucleus frames, shake off all the bees (and possibly Queen) into the bottom box, fill up the gap with your remaining 14x12's, replace your queen excluder and then put the bee-less nucleus frames in the box at the top of the stack for two or three weeks, by which time most or all brood will be hatched out and remove empty nucleus frames. I would give them a check after a week in case the bees got confused and raised a few emergency cells up there, if so squish them. Other options are available..
 #6341  by Steve 1972
 11 Apr 2020, 19:43
I have seen extenders somewhere that can take a standard national frame to a 14" frame..it is fastened to the bottom of the standard frame...fairly simple to do what I have seen of them however I have never used them..I don't see the point in 14x12's so that might be why..lol