Seems like I do not have much time to make bee stuff for myself often so this hive was in the plans for many months. With this last batch of long langs I decided it was time to make a long lang mating nuc…long nuc for short?!? It has 6 nuc compartments from 4 to 5 frames and uses apimaye top feeders as cover boards. I had a customer doing the exact some thing the week before and we found out that the little alignment tabs on the apimaye top feeders were hitting the dividers and causing the bees to leak out. I took my oscillating saw out and cut those tabs off flush and they sit fine. Also I had to cut down two of the feeders on the table saw…they were just a bit wide for this box. In hindsight perhaps using the skinnier 7 frame top feeders might have made more sense but we will see later this summer when I have to feed more.
The lid is a tub that my local metal shop bent for me…it should hold up for a very long time.
So you might ask why the weird paint? Well bees can see patterns and designs. For example if there is a big stick on the ground in front of their hive, they use that to help them find their home. With the designs I am hoping that the queens can make it back to their colony. I just happen to have a “gone fishing” stencil laying around and thought why not?
I did some splits a few weeks ago so this “long nuc” has 6 splits with virgin queens installed. I need to get out there and check them and if I remember perhaps get some video footage as well.
