# Queen castle plans



## rmaxwell (Apr 23, 2014)

Anyone have queen castle plans they would be willing to share? I'm considering making a few and didn't have tons of success searching through google. I know there has been prior discussions about the different ways folks make theirs but I couldn't seem to find much in the way of plans. 

I ran across a couple plans that just took a deep body and installed grooves for dividers but I'm sure there are a number of folks out there who have made modifications that improved on the basic design. Thanks for your help.


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

I purchased a medium Queen Castle and built a knock off a couple of years later. I prefer the one that I built. I use medium frames and when I made my "queen castle" I used the full width of a 1x8. Slats were attached along with two hardwood supports on the bottom. The two bottom supports provide clearance which offers some ventilation unlike the purchased assembly. 

The deeper box provides more clearance for queen cells hanging off of frames. With the Brushy Mountain castle I had to shim up frames at times to avoid crushing q-cells.

I would definitely recommend increasing the clearance under the frames....


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

I don't have a plan for you. I just make up 3 frames compartment with 2 dividers using 1 deep hive box.
I'm sure you tube have many examples for you to ponder on.


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## PAHunter62 (Jan 26, 2011)

+1 on BeeCurious advice.

I too use all mediums and made mine with the full width of a 1x8. Often times QC's hang well below the frame and you want the extra room to avoid crushing them.

I made several MP double NUC bottoms - six medium frames each side. There is a 3/4 inch divider board down the middle, then I cut 3/8 inch deep dado's down the middle of the end-boards on each half to allow sliding in another divider. This allows me to reuse them as queen castles holding 3 medium frames in each of the four sections. I make up my summer NUCs in these boxes and then use them to overwinter my NUCs.

Good Luck!


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## Knisely (Oct 26, 2013)

PAHunter62: Do you have any photos to supplement your descriptions?


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## Colino (May 28, 2013)

Check out this thread: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?276911-Queen-Castle-Plans
Or there is also the Double 3 Frame Brood Nuc in the DIY section.
Colino


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## PAHunter62 (Jan 26, 2011)

Knisely ... Sure. I had one on the garage that was not finished/deployed.

You can see each half would hold 6 medium frames. Each 6 frame half is divided (3/8 inch dado to accept 1/4 divider boards) so I can slide in a piece of 1/4 inch sub flooring for use as a 4 bay queen castle. Each section has an entrance. For NUC use, I close off the entrances on the side sections.

To finish, I just add a piece of ply to the bottom. I add supers to each half when running NUCs. Bees cluster to the center board in the winter.


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## PAHunter62 (Jan 26, 2011)

One other note. The divider board is slightly taller than the rest. I took Lauri's advice to make sure the divider stands a little proud over the rest of the box. This accounts for shrinkage as the wood drys over time. You don't want bees/queens to be able to pass from side to side around the divide board.

I've found when I buy dimensional lumber locally, there are slight variations in width. I cut my divides from stock that is a little bit wider.


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## Knisely (Oct 26, 2013)

Hi PAHunter62:

Thanks for that photo! It is now clearer to me what the 1x8 meant. I thought you were describing fitting 6 frames into each half of a single 8 frame medium super. I now know you were indicating the _depth_ of a piece of dimensional lumber, the better to accommodate queen cells built on the bottoms of frames.

What are you doing with the supers when you're running each half as a nuc? Are they 5 frame wide butted up against each other, or are they a custom width?


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## PAHunter62 (Jan 26, 2011)

I make my NUCs custom - 6 frames each. The total width of the bottom box will accommodate two 6 frame NUCS butted up against each other.

The first queen castle I made was using 6 5/8" medium super depth. You really have to be careful with some QCs if they protrude below the frame. Some it would be very hard to add in without damaging them. By providing more space that problem is eliminated.


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## rmaxwell (Apr 23, 2014)

PAHunter62 said:


> Knisely ... Sure. I had one on the garage that was not finished/deployed.
> 
> You can see each half would hold 6 medium frames. Each 6 frame half is divided (3/8 inch dado to accept 1/4 divider boards) so I can slide in a piece of 1/4 inch sub flooring for use as a 4 bay queen castle. Each section has an entrance. For NUC use, I close off the entrances on the side sections.
> 
> ...


PA Hunter,

Do I understand correctly that you have six frames on each side? Does that mean your box is larger than a standard 10 -frame? Thanks.


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## PAHunter62 (Jan 26, 2011)

rmaxwell, yes, that is correct. When I'm using the box for NUC purposes, there are six frames on each side of the center divider board. My custom 6 frame medium NUCs are 10.75 inch outside dimension on the end boards, so the double bottom is 21.5 inches wide. Since I run all medium sized equipment, I wanted my NUCs to have more comb space than a 5 frame NUC would have provided. When I decided to make some double NUC bottoms, it worked out well that I could cut an extra slot in each half to accept another 1/4 divide and also use the box for a queen castle when I need too. There are two more entrances (one behind the frames on the far side of the box in the picture, and one cropped off in the near side right corner). I block off these entrances when using for a NUC setup.

Hope that helps.


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