# BeeMax deep quad mini mating nuc and swarm box pics



## KevinR (Apr 30, 2010)

After browsing the photo gallery, I've decided that you have too much free time to decorate the hives. *grins*

With that said, have you tried out the 3-frame long hive/mating nucs? I was curious how well those would work, but haven't tried yet.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

I have not tried them yet. Just made them recently. I can't wait for spring though. 
Although I try to think of everything, but once they are in use I usually see room for improvement in the designs. 
I like the long hive nuc and with some thought in the layout, I could easily be a multi use piece of equipment.


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

Really nice!


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

I added a few photos to the slideshow.
Showing the modified standard box with 1x2's to make the outside measurement fit the Beemax bottom body-so you can use quart sized glass jars for feeding.



















I covered the migratory style top with aluminum to keep out wet weather OUT. Even sealed wood covers still leak a touch.










Or cover them with a rubber mat:


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## ChristopherA (Jul 20, 2010)

Curious what is that pan looking thing under the hive?


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

That is my cart


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Here is what I was talking about with the frame rest










And heres how I fixed it. About 3/8" piece of wood glued to shelf, then glue on plastic protector. Raised it up to proper height.


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## Rolande (Aug 23, 2010)

Hi Lauri, just wondering how these boxes worked out over the season? I know that there are a lot of people using similar in wood but I'm considering the possibility of doing the same sort of conversion on a few European poly hive bodies.


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## olympic (Aug 20, 2006)

Don't think much of your collection of bird's wings shown in you photos. Is it something you are proud of and want to show off?


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## Zier64 (Dec 29, 2010)

Olympic, It is Photo bucket and so she probably has them showing in one big library and they all pop up as you scroll through...Take the fact she is showing us her setup on her bees as very nice and gives people that want to do the same a great example. Plus as a hunter i see nothing wrong with it on her own photo collection to show whatever she wants Dont like dont look and dont complain!



olympic said:


> Don't think much of your collection of bird's wings shown in you photos. Is it something you are proud of and want to show off?


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

olympic said:


> Don't think much of your collection of bird's wings shown in you photos. Is it something you are proud of and want to show off?


Really? This is your responce to my OP about building mating nucs? Since the duck wings did not appear in any of the posted photos, I agree with Zier64, you must have looked through my photo bucket site. Although they do pertain to beekeeping.

So I guess my responce to you is: Yup, I murder as many ducks and geese as I can, tear off the bloody wings with my teeth and dance around them thinking what a great hunter I am. Out of over 2500 pictures on my photo bucket account of gardening, beekeeping, wood working, horses, hunting and fishing, game processing and cooking recipes, I can see you drew that conclusion without a doubt from a single photo. 

Oh yes, by the way, duck and goose wings are for brushing bees off frames. Nice to have a use for the carcass of a game animal that would otherwise be thrown away. Once you use a wing you'd never go back to a brush. I wish I knew someone who tied flies. Those greenheads are beautiful.



















Here is one of my Murdering accomplices:









Heres my last deer in the spaghetti sauce pot. LOL, Looks like showing off to me. I'll be tearing my teeth into this too










And here is why we eat meat..six kids and all their friends. None of us wants to be poisened by store bought food.










SO next time you go get a hamburger at McDonalds, remember this is probably what you are eating. 










Don't insinuate I am cruel to animals when you know nothing about me, and I expect YOU are NOT a vegetarian.


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

I appreciate the fact you showed us all a traditional bee brush. It's great that you feed your family local sustainable protein. 

I don't think much of that particular brand of carbon arrow or the vanes it's fletched with but to each his/her own!!!


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

That's an Easton Acc 339 with a rubber blunt. The vanes are flex fletch, which I liked but were a bit of a pain to install. We use AAE Max Hunters now and like them better. Four fletched for broadhead use.
There are so many carbon arrows available now, I've stuck with Easton Acc's for over 25 years.

Which carbons are you using? 

I got the idea for the wing brush from the many European Beekeeping videos I've watched.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Laurie,

Thanks for sharing the information and the pictures. 

I see you used starter strips of plastic foundation in your half frames with what looks like a “skewer” through the lower holes for the bees to build the comb around for support. Is this correct? If so, how did that work for you and do you happen to have any pictures of the comb built around the skewers to share?

Thanks,
Joe


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## olympic (Aug 20, 2006)

Pathetic!


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## pahammer (Oct 8, 2012)

Lauri,

Great pics! thanks for sharing...

John


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Hi Joe, here is a link to the thread where I posted a few pics addressing that issue. 

http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...rnatives-to-wiring-frames&p=866971#post866971
The skewers worked well in certain applications and were so easy to install. 

Here are 9 1/4" deep frames with skewers in a swarm trap, partially drawn and occupied:









The horizontal design of the foundation was nothing I would do again. ( As shown in the OP)A straight cut quarter or half sheet is better. But anytime the bees came to a change in within the frame they switched over to large cell comb. It was interesting, but not what I was looking for in some areas of the hive.

In comparison, here is a full sheet (Cut in half) of black rite cell in the 9 1/4" deep frame. I didn't do any totally foundationless-so don't have photos to show of that. I cut my foundation on the compound miter saw..about 10 at a time, trim off the corners and slip them into the frames. 









And then drawn out an occupied. 










Here is another way I got the mini frames drawn out for mini mating nucs, and then to overwinter in the fall. I ran the 19 7/8" side of a 10 frame box on the router before assembly to make a ledge on one side, added a divider board just off center to hold the other side of the frames. Room for a good sized feeder and a frame or two of pollen. This worked great since I could use it in combination with standard hives. The frames were different directions, but they drew them out beautifully. 










This fall I combined a few mini mating nucs into this box, then added standard frames of honey in a box above them. 
This would work well an an 8 frame deep..room for a 1 1/2 gallon mann lake interior feeder. You can run assembled box's on the router too to make your ledge for the mini frames, you'll just see a few sparks if the router blade nips the staples in the top. (I use small crown staples, NOT nails)

Here is a pic of a regular deep frame with a half sheet of black rite cell. It worked well, supported the comb and saved me a bit of $$ by stretching the foundation costs. Half foundationless and half foundation with the benifets of both. Someone on Beesourse said it had Yin and Yang..LOL.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Is that a picture of a hamburger BUN?? What about all those people with gluten sensitivity!! :no:

:lpf::lpf:


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

C.E. Maxi w/ blazer vanes, made in Korea but I'm like most stuck on what works.


Pathetic, is a strong word for to call someone's choice in archery tackle. 

The photos you post are helpful, and even though some don't comment I'm sure your ingenuity is appreciated by nearly all. You're creative and your post are helpful. It's rotten to take a stab at someone that is trying to share.
I'm struggling with what to use for mating Nucs too many choices!!!


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Thanks Mbeck..And thanks to those that sent me messages. 

I have used several mating nucs this last year and will submit a post in the near future about assembly, design and size pros and cons, etc. They all worked well, but I have to say the fence hanging mini with 5- half deep frames was the perfect size for a strong mini colony,large enough to stay warm in my cool springtime climate but not so big it was time consuming to find the Queens..and Looking for the queens while standing upright was a blessing for my back. I'll post a pic for those that have not seen them. The window was neat, but I never used it except to take this photos and it was time consuming to add the window.


















The only trouble I had with these was the earwigs liked to congregate between the fence board and the box. They never bothered the bees though, just bothered me.










I added the disk excluders to have control over robbers if I needed to feed.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Miller-Compound-HoneyBees-and-Agriculture/256954971040510


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## tefer2 (Sep 13, 2009)

Lauri, that looks like a hungry bunch your feeding, great thread. Thanks for the info.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Laurie,

Thanks , I enjoy your nuc designs!

Joe


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

Those are slick I did like the idea.
Do you find it a pain to deal with all the extra odd size frames that mating Nucs demand.
The smaller Nucs are efficient for larger volume but considering the extra cost and inability to blend the equipment back in is a problem unless you have a portion of you operation totally committed to raising queens. 
What number of queens do you think makes the extra odd gear worth it?

I raise them in Nucs or partitioned Deeps.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Nucs and divided deeps work great too. I do like handling the mini frames and don't mind the extra equipment. I cut full sized frames and mill them down to mini size, but make them 9 1/4" instead of the standard 9 1/8" length. They just seem to fit the quad box's better. Could even be 9 3/16" in some cases. That dosen't seem like much difference, but it keeps them from falling off one side of the shelf or the other with the right amount of bee space along side the frame.
Heres a colony on one side of a divided Dadant deep box. With a 3/4" divider-with a shelf routed out on each side to hold the frame ends, a 9 1/8" mini frame would fall off the side.









I got these Dadant deeps to overwinter the quads, but at the last minute chickened out and combined them for two colonies in each box instead of four. I'll let you know how they overwinter in a few months.
That mini frame you see in the center of the colony, is this feeding frame. They loved it. Many of these mini frames had a 3# package installed on undrawn comb except for the feed frame. Those wire wrapped frames seemed to become an importaint part of the broodnest that they congregated around the whole season.










I also liked my breeder queens installed on the mini frames. Made taking out a frame for grafting seem less intrusive than removing a large frame and easier to find just the right age and amount of larva.

Here is that same Dadant divided box in the fall:


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Hey, I tie flies! I'll pay postage for some feathers. I skin all my ducks whole for either mounting later or complete skins for tying. The flanks and the 'bronze mallard' flank on the back would be greatly appreciated along with some well paired wings (need left and right wings). Flank should be paired as well, but it's easy to sort through, need to make the antennae curve right like this:










Caddis emerger I developed










Larva form










Using the wings for brushes is great, all the old vids show people using goose or duck wings/feathers.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

JRG13, very nice work! Why don't you PM me with your name and address and I'll hang onto it until We get some new birds. 
Do you have any use for rex rabbit skins? I have several that are dried and treated I hoped to let someone take if they can use them. Most of the colors are brown or castor as they call it.


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## TooFarGone (Aug 19, 2012)

Lauri,
Loved the photobucket slide show! I live the queenmating nuc too.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Yes, rabbit makes great dubbing, typically hare's ear or the 'mask' is used. The rest can be used as 'strips' for making streamers etc... I would gladly compensate you if you're not using them for anything else. I'll send a pm.


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## WilliamsHoneyBees (Feb 17, 2010)

Lauri, thanks for taking the time to post and share your photos with us. As for the lean high quailty free range protein you are feeding you and your kids. Good for you!! :applause: Every fall I walk into the woods and hunt to fill our freezers with meat. Other then hamburger patties and the occasional ribeye we don't eat beef. All our red meat comes from the woods and most coming from my grandfathers woods that have been in our family for over 200 years. It is very spiritual for me to utilize such a wonderful renewable resource each and every year. Good luck in the field!


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## WilliamsHoneyBees (Feb 17, 2010)

JRG13 Beautiful!!! :thumbsup:


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Thanks Pine, 

When I have some time, I may try a realistic bee at some point.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

I ran across this photo of those mating nucs in the raspberries. You can hang them anywhere, not just on a fence.


















For those that are interested, I just got back from a Mule Deer Archery hunt in Eastern Wa. You can see photos on my facebook page. WARNING, Graphic photos! If you don't want to see, DON'T LOOK.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mille...und-HoneyBees-and-Agriculture/256954971040510


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