Poly hive musings.

**HJBee** · 08-07-2014, 10:56 PM

I'm in the market for a Poly Nuc, noticed a few of you have bought the Thornes ones. Now you've had them a while, would you recommend (seem the cheapest). H

**fatshark** · 12-07-2014, 09:03 PM

Anyone here bought the Thorne Everynuc 2 for Nationals? I've just rec'd 6 - ordered sight unseen - and the bee space doesn't look correct around the sides of the frames. More like a centimetre. They are good and solid, 4cm thick pretty much throughout. Easy to paint as they are smooth. Nice integrated mesh floor and Varroa pull out tray. They are obviously designed for Langstroth frames, with a variable width integral feeder to reduce the length for other sizes. One frame end rests on the edge of the feeder, not on a metal frame runner. The entrance is too big for a nuc … full width and about 1cm high.

These are the more expensive of the two Thorne poly nuc offerings … interested (like HLBee) in what others think.

**lindsay s** · 12-07-2014, 11:10 PM

Hello Fatshark and HJBee
See my posts on pages 28 and 29 of this thread. Everything is running late up here this year. I gave them 3 coats of emulsion paint and altered the height of the wooden feeders to give them partial top bee space at one end. I’ve not using the wooden feeders so I’ve covered the tops with duct tape and I have used mesh to close down the entrances to about 45mm wide. Because the brood box can fit either way I decided to leave the feeder at the back. At the moment I have two frames of brood and two frames of stores in the nucs (made from splitting hives) and once the queens are mated and laying I will move the bees into full size hives. I want to build the colonies up by adding more brood and store frames before winter. The clear plastic inner cover is good because you can slide it on and you won’t crush the bees when you put the roof on but watch out because it can blow off in the wind. The nucs are just for short term use so the bees will only be in them for a few weeks.

**HJBee** · 13-07-2014, 08:24 AM

Thanks Lindsay, do you think the paint will make cleaning easier! H

**fatshark** · 13-07-2014, 09:10 AM

Thanks from me as well Lindsay. I'm going to try and add a frame runner to the inside upper lip of the feeder. I'd intending to overwinter colonies in these - they're much more solidly built than the Paynes boxes - but suspect they might make a mess of things with the bee space.

**lindsay s** · 13-07-2014, 12:58 PM

HJBee I just painted the outside of the nucs to protect them from the weather. I’m not sure about cleaning the insides.
Fatshark overwintering is something I’m considering for the future. How are you planning to stock them for this winter? My main worry is getting the balance right between bees and stores. For example to many bees and they will run out stores or not enough bees and they will dwindle away.

**Mellifera Crofter** · 13-07-2014, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by lindsay s

... Fatshark overwintering is something I’m considering for the future. How are you planning to stock them for this winter? My main worry is getting the balance right between bees and stores. For example to many bees and they will run out stores or not enough bees and they will dwindle away.

One thing I like about a Paynes poly nuc is the eke which I use to house over-the-head candy for winter. I've modified the plastic crown board with a hole and place the candy, in an upturned tub, above the hole, and then surround the tub with insulation. I've not seen either of the two Thornes poly nucs, but the lack of an eke has so far stopped me being interested in them.

Kitta

IMG_5160.jpg

**fatshark** · 13-07-2014, 06:14 PM

Hi Kitta … I built homemade ekes for my Paynes boxes. Same idea, works well. However, the Paynes boxes are thinner, so they'll need more stores.

Linsday … I let the bees determine the balance. I have queens out in mating nucs now. When these are ready (~2 weeks) I'll split full colonies up, giving two frames of brood and adhering bees, a shake of additional bees together with an additional frame of stores, then add the mated queen. By early August she should be going strong and has plenty of time to build up before I feed them up for winter. I usually use fondant so they tend to take this down relatively slowly, rather than packing out the box like they do on syrup. I've overwintered in ply and the Paynes boxes when made up mid season before and haven't had an issue.

Regarding the feeder. Did you cut the lugs down in depth so it sat a little lower in the box?

**lindsay s** · 13-07-2014, 09:01 PM

Kitta the Thornes 14”x12” Everynuc has a 60mm eke. There’s also an Everynuc poly feeder. If the mesh is removed from the feeder the bees will have easy access to candy.
Fatshark the answer to your question is yes but I haven’t altered the height of the frame runner at the other end of the box (I didn’t want to hack it to bits). So the result is top bee space only at one end of the box, it’s not very satisfactory but is better than nothing.